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ENGLISH    PULPIT; 


COLLECTION    OF    SERMONS 


BY   THE 


MOST    EMINENT    LIVING    DIVINES 


OF 


ENGLAND. 


"  I  wish  the  majesty  of  the  piilpit  -were  more  looked  to ;  and  that  no  sermons  were  offered 
from  thence,  but  such  as  should  make  the  hearers  both  the  better  and  wiser ;  the  more 
knowing,  and  the  more  serious." — Bishop  Burnet. 

"  I  love  a  serious  preacher,  who  speaks  for  my  sake,  and  not  for  his  own ;  who  seeks  my 
salvation,  and  not  his  own  vaiu-glorj'.  He  best  deserves  to  be  heard  who  uses  speech  only 
to  clothe  his  thoughts,  and  his  thoughts  only  to  promote  truth  and  virtue." 


NEW   YORK: 

ROBERT    CAR'TER     &    BROTHERS, 

No.     285    BROADWAY. 

1849. 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  fact  that  the  public  are  already  in  possession  of  many  valuable 
collections  of  sermons,  cannot  be  deemed  a  sufficient  reason  for  not 
increasing  the  number  of  such  publications.  On  the  contrary,  new  acces- 
sions to  the  existing  stock  are  constantly  needed  to  supply  the  places  of 
those  that  are  yearly  passing  into  disuse.  There  is  a  freshness  in  a  work 
directly  from  the  press  —  especially  if  it  contain  a  choice  variety  of  mat- 
ter —  which  gives  to  it  a  peculiar  charm.     Perhaps 

"  'Tis  curiosity.  —  Who  hath  not  felt 
Its  spirit,  and  before  its  altar  knelt  ?  " — 

that  will  lead  many  to  read  with  interest  a  new  book,  who  would  never 
advance  beyond  the  title  page  of  an  old  one  of  equal  merit. 

That  this  inert  love  of  novelty  may  be  turned  to  the  best  account,  no 
pains  should  be  spared  to  furnish  an  ample  supply  of  healthy  aliment,  that 
thus  the  reluctant  mind  may  be  allured  to  the  reception  of  useful  instruction. 
Besides,  it  is  a  fact  —  scarcely  less  interesting  to  the  patriot  than  to  the 
Christian  —  that  the  alarming  demand  for  a  large  class  of  publications, 
pregnant  with  the  most  deadly  poison,  under  which  the  press  for  years 
has  "  groaned,  being  burdened,"  is  gradually  diminishing,  while  good, 
truthful,  and  religious  books  are  finding  a  correspondingly  greater  sale. 
To  answer  this  increasing  demand,  and  as  an  antidote  to  the  poison,  every 
Christian  press  in  the  land  should  be  kept  busy,  scattering  its  "  healing 
leaves "  with  an  unsparing  hand,  until  useful  and  religious  books,  like 
Aaron's  rod,  shall  have  swallowed  up  the  serpents  of  the  magicians. 

In  offering  to  the  public  this  collection  of  sermons,  it  is  proper  to  state 
that,  with  the  exception  of  a  single  discourse,*  no  portion  of  the  present 
volume  has  before  been  published  in  this  country.  It  will  be  found  to 
contain  sermons  by  several  ministers  whose  productions  are  comparatively 
little  known  to  the  American  public.  Among  these  might  be  mentioned 
that  of  Daniel  Moore,  the  worthy  successor  of  Melvill,  at  Camden  Chapel. 
Mr.  Moore  is  justly  celebrated  both  as  a  preacher  and  a  writer.     In  the 

*  Tlie  sermon  by  Dr.  Bums  was  preached  and  published  in  another  form  during  his 
recent  visit  to  this  countrj'. 


4  INTRODUCTION". 

latter  sphere  he  has  been  the  successful  competitor  for  several  prizes. 
His  writings  are  destined  to  be  more  extensively  known  in  this  country. 
The  sermon  by  him  in  this  volume  is  one  of  a  series  which  he  delivered 
before  the  University  of  Cambridge. 

It  is  believed  that  the  "  English  Pulpit"  is  in  no  respect  inferior  to  any 
similar  work  that  has  appeared  from  the  American  press,  while  it  differs 
from  all  of  them  in  two  particulars  —  it  contains  but  one  sermon  by  the 
same  individual,  and  is  designed  to  embody  specimens  of  the  pulpit  efforts 
of  some  of  the  most  eminent  living  divines  of  England.  In  making  these 
selections,  the  editor  has  not  confined  himself  to  any  one  branch  of  the 
Christian  church,  but  has  freely  ranged  through  all  denominations  main- 
taining the  essential  principles  of  Christianity.  And  he  indulges  the  hope, 
that  from  this  wide  field  he  has  culled  such  fruit  as  will  prove  both  pleas- 
ant to  the  eye  and  good  for  food  —r-  fruit  tending  to  increase  knowledge 
and  promote  piety. 

The  editor  would  not  of  course  be  willing  to  be  held  responsible  for 
every  sentiment  maintained  in  these  pages ;  still,  it  has  been  his  endeavor 
not  to  give  greater  publicity  to  fundamental  error.  By  glancing  at  the 
table  of  contents  it  will  be  seen  that  a  choice  variety  of  subjects  are  here 
discussed,  and  by  referring  to  the  sermons  the  attentive  reader  will  dis- 
cover something  of  that  "  diversity  of  gifts  "  in  the  Christian  ministry, 
which,  from  their  respective  peculiarities  of  style,  compass  of  thought, 
habits  of  illustration,  and  natural  temperament,  is  calculated  to  render 
their  ministrations  adapted  to  "  the  edifying  of  the  whole  body  of  Christ," 
and  for  bringing  sinners  "  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth."  It  has  been 
well  observed  by  the  Rev.  John  Newton  that,  "  in  the  variety  of  gifts 
conferred  on  the  faithful  ministers  of  the  gospel,  the  Lord  has  a  gracious 
regard  to  the  different  tastes  and  dispositions,  as  well  as  to  the  wants  of 
his  people  ;  and  by  their  combined  effects  the  complete  system  of  his 
truth  is  illustrated,  and  the  good  of  his  church  promoted  with  the  highest 
advantage  ;  while  his  ministers,  like  officers  assigned  to  different  stations 
in  an  army,  have  not  only  the  good*  of  the  whole  in  view,  but  each  one 
his  particular  post  to  maintain." 

It  has  been  often  remarked  of  the  ministers  of  Great  Britain,  that  a  very 
large  proportion  of  their  sermons  are  addressed  to  the  church,  and  that 
the  great  dividing  line  between  saints  and  sinners  is  not  made  sufficiently 
distinct.     In  its  general  application  this  remark  is  doubtless  just,*  but 

*  Since  writing  the  above,  the  editor  has  for  the  first  time  met  with  the  following  state- 
ment by  the  Rev.  John  Yonng,  of  London.  After  having  preached  at  Albion  Chapel  nearly 
twelve  years,  in  commencing  a  sei-ies  of  sermons  to  the  imconverted,  he  says :  "  It  is  an 
■unusual  thing  to  preach  to  the  unconverted.  I  have  never  yet  preached  an  entire  sermon 
to  the  unconverted.  There  may  be  detached  passages  in  many  sermons  that  are  applicable 
to  this  class  ;  there  may  be  particular  warnings,  exhortations,  and  appeals  that  .are  addressed 
to  them  ;  but  it  is  unusual  to  preach  wholly  and  expressly  to  the  unconverted  as  a  class. 
It  is  not  the  present  system."  He  admits,  however,  that  "  this  is  not  in  harmony  with 
apostolic  example,"  but  that  "  all  the  sermons  —  sketches  of  sermons  rather  —  that  are  pre- 
sented in  the  New  Testament,  were  preached  to  the  unconverted." 


INTRODUCTION.  5 

there  are  many  honorable  exceptions  to  it.  As  an  example,  might  be 
mentioned  James  Parsons,  of  York,  "  a  burning  and  a  shining  light,"  and 
one  of  the  brightest  ornaments  of  the  English  pulpit.  A  large  propor- 
tion of  his  sermons  are  addressed  to  the  impenitent ;  and  seldom  does 
he  preach  a  discourse  which  does  not  contain  pungent  and  soul-stirring 
appeals  to  the  consciences  of  sinners ;  and,  as  the  result  of  his  faithful 
labors,  "  much  people  has  been  added  to  the  Lord."  The  "  Sermons  to 
the  Unconverted,  by  B.  W.  Noel,"  show  that  he  does  not  forget  his  obli- 
gations to  this  class  of  his  hearers.  To  this  list  might  be  added  the  names 
of  Bunting,  James,  Aitken  and  others.  There  is  undoubtedly  danger,  lest, 
from  the  delightful  and  elevating  nature  of  heavenly  themes,  we  should 
be  induced  to  preach  more  frequently  to  saints,  than  is  consistent  with  a 
faithful  discharge  of  our  duty  to  those  who  are  far  from  God.  It  is  im- 
portant to  mature  and  perfect  the  work  of  grace  in  the  hearts  of  those 
that  have  embraced  Christ ;  but  the  great  majority  of  most  congregations 
are  in  the  broad  way  to  perdition ;  and  the  minister  who  is  anxious  to  give 
"  full  proof  of  his  ministry,"  and  whose  grand,  conspicuous  aim  is,  "  to 
save  himself  and  them  that  hear  him,"  will  be  careful  to  "  give  to  every 
one  his  portion  in  due  season." 

It  was  observed  by  the  prince  of  philosophers,  "  that  no  man  would  ever 
become  a  good  philosopher  until  he  saw  all  nature  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Creator  ;  "  with  equal  truth  it  may  be  said,  in  reference  to  the  work  of  the 
ministry,  that  no  man  will  ever  be  a  good  and  "  faithful  minister  of  Christ," 
who  does  not  view  his  responsibility  in  the  light  of  another  world.  He 
must  feel  that  he  is  an  ambassador  of  God,  commissioned  by  him  to 
"  preach  the  word  ;  to  be  instant  in  season  and  out  of  season  ;  to  reprove, 
rebuke  and  exhort  with  all  long-suffering  and  doctrine."  Such  a  minister 
will  strive  to  obtain  deep  and  realizing  views  of  the  worth  of  the  immor- 
tal soul  —  of  the  imminent  danger  of  its  being  lost,  and  of  the  awful 
responsibility,  should  one  perish  through  his  neglect.  Penetrated  with 
these  views,  he  will  feel  no  inclination  to  cater  to  the  taste  of  those 
"  which  say  to  the  seers,  see  not ;  and  to  the  prophets,  speak  unto  us 
smooth  things  ; "  *  but  he  will  adopt  as  his  motto  : 

"  Careless,  myself  a  dying  man, 
Of  dying  men's  esteem ; 
Happy,  my  God,  if  thou  approve, 
Though  all  the  world  condemn." 

But,  if  the  preacher's  heart  is  not  deeply  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  his 
calling,  he  is  very  liable  to  be  unduly  influenced  in  the  choice  of  his  sub- 
jects, and  in  his  style  of  preaching,  by  that  class  of  hearers  who  regard 
sermons  only  as  a  species  of  entertainment,  or  intellectual  treat.  There 
aie  many  qualified,  it  may  be,  to  perceive,  and  ready  to  admire  the 

*  Isaiah  xxx.  10. 


6  INTRODUCTION. 

beauties  of  fine  composition,  who  are  exquisitely  alive  to  the  powerful 
charm  of  eloquence,  that  would  feel  no  interest  in,  nay,  be  disgusted  with, 
d  discourse  embodying  the  most  important  truths,  if  presented  in  a  serious 
and  simple  style,  without  the  graces  of  literary  elegance  and  the  attrac- 
tions of  oratory.  But  the  preacher  of  the  gospel  should  never  forget  that 
it  is  quite  possible  to  minister  to  the  gratification  of  cultivated  taste  with- 
out promoting  the  growth  of  piety  —  that  the  wondering  multitude  may  be 
thrilled  and  electrified  by  his  eloquence,  without  being  alarmed  by  the 
warnings,  or  interested  in  the  doctrines  of  the  gospel.  He  may  be  "  unto 
them  as  a  very  lovely  song  of  one  that  hath  a  pleasant  voice,  and  can  play 
well  on  an  instrument ;  they  may  hear  his  words  but  do  them  not."* 
They  are  pleased  with  the  preacher,  and  at  ease  with  themselves.  But  so 
far  as  these  are  concerned,  the  important  and  solemn  office  of  preaching 
has  failed  to  secure  its  appropriate  effect. 

Happy  the  preacher  who,  when  called  to  "  finish  his  course,  and  the 
ministry  which  he  has  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus,"  can  address  those 
with  whom  he  has  labored,  in  the  language  of  the  apostle,  "  Now,  behold, 
I  know  that  ye  all,  among  whom  I  have  gone  preaching  the  kingdom  of 
God,  shall  see  my  face  no  more.  Wherefore  I  take  you  to  record  this 
day,  that  I  am  pure  from  the  blood  of  all  men.  For  I  have  not  shunned 
to  declare  unto  you  all  the  counsel  of  God."  t 

*  Ezek.  xxxiii.  32.  t  Acts.  xs.  25—27. 


0«' 


cf 


PIlIITC£ITO:j 


ALPHABETICAL  ARRANGEMENT  OE  PREACHERS. 


PKEACHEE.  SUBJECT.                                                                                  PAGE. 

Adkins,  T.     .   .   .  The  Glory  of  the  Gospel, 376 

Atherton,  W.    .   .  God's  Love  to  the  World, 168 

Beaumont,  J.  E.  .  Cluist  Crucified, 123 

Belcher,  J.     .   .   .  The  Transmission  of  Scripture  Truth  to  Posterity, 331 

Bennett,  J.     .   .   .  The  Double  Transfer, 241 


Birt,  I The  Spiritual  Building, 

Bloomfield,  C  J. 
Bradley,  C.    . 
Bromley,  J.   . 
Bunting,  J.    . 
Bunting,  W.  M. 


180 

The  Nature  and  Effects  of  Justifying  Faith, 26 

.  Ease  for  the  Troubled  Spirit, 201 

.  Eai-tlily  and  Heavenly  Things  Contrasted, 250 

.  The  Nature  and  Unreasonableness  of  Unbelief, 13 

.  Doctrine  of  the  Atonement, 209 

Bums,  J The  Great  Theme  of  the  Christian  Ministry, 112 

Gumming,  J.     .   .  Duty  of  Assailing  the  Errors  of  the  Church  of  Eome, 353 

East,  T Man's  Happiness  Dependent  on  his  Coming  to  Christ, 304 

Fletcher,  A.  ...  An  Address  to  Children, 291 

Ford,  D.  E.    ...  Eariy  Dedication  to  God, 155 

Gibson,  T The  Worth  of  the  Soul, 391 

Hamilton,  J.  .   .   .  Industry, '^^ 

Hamilton,  E.  W.  .  Scene  of  the  Last  Judgment, 229 

James,  J.  A.  .   .   .  Christianity  a  System  of  Love, 86 

Jay,  W Opposition  to  Christ, 190 

Jobson,  F.  J.  .   .   .  The  Knowledge  of  Christ  Crucified, 48 

Melvill,  H Translation  of  EHjah,  and  Death-Bed  of  Elisha, 260 

Moore,  D Paul  before  Felix, 84 

Newton,  R.     .   .   .  The  Happy  5Ian  a  Religious  Man, 272 

Noel,  B.  W.   .   .   .  The  Nature  of  Justifying  Faith, 841 

Parsons,  J.     .   .   .  The  Character  and  Privileges  of  a  Christian, 86 

Parsons,  E.    .   .   .  The  Song  of  Angels, 136 

Raffles,  T The  Church  of  Christ, M 

Shermon,  J.  .   .   .  The  Wisdom  of  Winning  Souls,  (to  S.  S.  Teachers,) 81T 

Wolff,  J A  Coming  Lord, 148 

Yonng,  R Human  Agency  in  the  Conversion  of  Sinners, 861 


BIBLICAL  ARRANGEMENT  OF  TEXTS. 


TEXTS.  PREACHER.  PAGE, 

2  Kings  13 :  14,   .    .   .   .  H.  Melvill,  Episcopal, 260 

Psalm  78 :  2-7,     ....  J.  Belcher,  Baptist, 331 

Psalm  94 :  19, C.  Bradley,  Episcopal, 201 

Psalm  144: 15,    .   .   .   .  R.  Newton,  J/e«Ao&<, 272 

Proverbs  11 :  30,  .   .   .   .J.  Sherman,  OongregatUmal, 317 

Isaiah  40 :  6-8,     ....  J.  Bromley,  Methodist, 250 

Jeremiah  3:4,    .   .   .  .  D.  E.  Ford, 155 

Jeremiah  50 :  14,     ...  J.  dimming,  Presbyterian, 353 

Matthew  12  :  30,     ...  Wm.  Jay,  Congregational, 190 

Matthew  14 :  18,  .   .   .   .  T.  Raffles,  Congregational, 64 

Matthew  16 :  26, .   .   .  .  T.  Gibson,  Episcopal, 391 

Mark  6:6 J.  Bunting,  Methodist, 13 

Luke  1 :  30-33,    ....  J.  Wolff, 148 

Luke  2 :  14, E.  Parsons,  Jr.,  Congregational, 136 

John  3:  16, Vf .  Mh&rion,  Methodist, 168 

John  5  :  40, T.  East,  Congregational, 304 

John  12 :  21, A.  Fletcher,  Presbyterian, 291 

Acts  2 :  22, 23,     ....  J.  E-  Beaumont,  Methodist, 123 

Acts  24 :  25, D.  Moore,  Episcopal, 84 

Romans  3 :  25, B.  W.  Noel,  Episcopal, 341 

Romans  10 :  10,  .   .  .  .  Bishop  of  London, 26 

Romans  12 :  11,   .   .   .   .J.  Hamilton,  Presbyterian, 76 

1  Corinthians  2:2,     .   .  F.  J.  Jobson,  Methodist, 48 

1  Corinthians  2:2,    .  .  J.  Bums,  General  Baptist, 112 

Galatians  5 :  13,  .  .  .   .  J.  A.  James,  Congregational, 98 

Ephesians  2 :  22, .   .  .   .1.  Birt, 180 

1  Timothy  1 :  11,    .  .  .  T.  Adkms, 870 

James  6 :  20, R.  Young,  Methodist, 361 

1  Peter  1 :  19,      .   .   .   .  W.  M.  Bunting,  Methodist, 209 

1  Peter  2:24, J.  Bennett,  Congregational, 247 

1  Peter  4 :  16 J.  Parsons,  Congregational     86 

Revelation  20 :  11-13,    .  R.  W.  Hamilton,  Oongregatimal, 229 


CONTENTS. 


SERMON  I.       • 

BY    REV.    JABEZ    BUNTING,    D.    D. 
Afld  he  marvelled,  because  of  their  unbelief.  —  Mark  vi.  6 13 


SERMON  II. 

BY    THE    RIGHT    REV.    C.    J.    BLOOMFIELD,    D.    D.,    BISHOP    OF    LONDON. 

With  the  heart  man  believeth  unto  righteousness ;  and,  with  the  mouth,  confession  is 
made  unto  salvation.  —  Romans  x.  10 26 


SERMON  III. 

BY    REV.    JAMES    PARSONS. 
A  Christian.  —  1  Petek  v.  16 86 

SERMON  IV. 

BY    REV.    F.    J.    JOBSON. 

I  determined  not  to  know  any  thing  among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ  and  Mm  cracified.  — 
1  CoE.  ii.  2 48 

SERMON  V. 

BY    REV.    T.    RAFFLES,    D.    D.,    L.    L.    D. 

And  I  say  unto  thee,  that  thou  art  Peter,  and  upon  this  roclt  I  will  build  my  Church ;  and 
the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it.  —  Matthew  xvi.  18 64 

SERMON  VI. 

BY    REV.    JAMES    HAMILTON. 
Not  slothful  in  business.  —  Romans  xii.  11 78 

SERMON  Vn. 

BY   EEV.    DANIEL    MOORE. 

And  as  he  reasoned  of  righteousness,  temperance,  and  judgment  to  come,  Felix  trembled, 
and  answered.  Go  thy  way  for  this  time :  wnen  I  have  a  convenient  season,  I  will  send  for 
thee.  —  Acts  xxiv.  25 84 


SERMON  VIII. 

BY   REV.   JOHN   A.    JAMES. 
By  love  serve  one  another.  —  GaliAtians  v.  13 


10  CONTENTS. 

SERMON  IX. 

BY    KEY.    JABEZ    BURNS,    D.    D. 

For  I  detennined  not  to  know  any  thing  among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ  and  him  cruci- 
fied. —  1  CORUSTUIANS  ii.  2 112 


SERMON  X. 

BY    REV.    J.    E.    BEAUMONT,    M.    D. 

Ye  men  of  Israel,  hear  these  words :  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  a  man  approved  of  God  among 
you  by  miracles,  and  wonders,  and  signs,  which  God  did  by  liim  in  the  midst  of  you,  as  ye 
yourselves  also  know :  HLni  being  delivered  by  the  determinate  counsel  and  foreknowledge 
of  God,  ye  have  taken,  and  by  wicked  hands  have  crucified  and  slain. — Acts  ii.  22, 
23 123 


SERMON  XI. 

BY    REV.    EDWARD    PARSONS,    JR. 
Glorj'  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on  earth  peace,  good- will  towards  men. —  Luke  ii.  14.  .  136 

SERMON  XII. 

BY    REV.    JOSEPH    WOLFF,    D.    D. 

And  the  angel  said  unto  her,  Fear  not,  Mary  ;  for  thou  hast  found  favor  with  God.  And, 
behold,  thou  shalt  conceive  ia  thy  womb,  and  bring  forth  a  son,  and  shalt  call  his  name 
Jesus.  He  shall  be  great,  and  shall  be  called  the  Son  of  the  Highest ;  and  the  Lord  God 
shall  give  unto  him  the  throne  of  his  father  David ;  and  he  shall  reign  over  the  house  of 
Jacob  for  ever ;  and  of  his  kingdom  there  shall  be  no  end —  Luke  i.  30-33 148 

SERMON  XIII. 

BY    REV.    D.    E.    FORD. 

Wilt  thou  not  from  this  time  cry  imto  me,  My  Father,  thou  art  the  guide  of  my  youtli  ? — 
Jekemiah  iii.  4 155 


SERMON  XIV. 

BY    REV.    WM.    ATHERTON. 

For  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only-begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth 
in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life.  —  John  iii.  16 168 


SERMON  XV. 

BY    EEV.    ISAIAH    BIRT. 

In  whom  ye  are  buUded  together  for  a  habitation  of  God  through  tlie  Spirit.  — Ephe- 
81AJJ8  ii.  22 180 


SERMON  XVI. 

BY    REV.    WM.    JAY. 
He  that  is  not  with  me,  is  against  me.  —  Matthew  xii.  30 190 

SERMON  XVII. 

BY    REV.    CHARLES  >  BRADLEY. 

In  the  multitude  of  my  thoughts  within  me,  thy  comforts  delight  my  soul.  —  Psalm  oxciv. 
19 20X 


CONTENTS.  11 

SERMON  XVIII. 

BY    REV.    W.    M.    BUNTING. 
The  precious  blood  of  Chi-ist.  —  1  Peter  i.  19 209 


SERMON  XIX. 

BY    REV.    R.    W.    HAMILTON,    D.    D.,    L.    L.    D. 

And  I  saw  a  great  white  throne,  and  Him  that  sat  on  it,  from  whose  face  the  earth  and 
the  heaven  fled  away ;  and  there  was  found  no  place  for  them.  And  I  saw  the  dead,  small 
and  great,  stand  before  God ;  and  the  books  were  opened ;  and  another  book  was  opened, 
which  is  the  book  of  life ;  and  the  dead  were  judged  out  of  those  things  which  were  written 
in  the  books,  according  to  their  works.  And  the  sea  gave  up  the  dead  which  were  in  it; 
and  death  and  heU  delivered  up  the  dead  which  were  in  them ;  and  they  were  judged  every 
man  according  to  their  works.  —  Kevelations  xx.  11-13.  .   .  • 229 


SERMON  XX. 

BY    REV.    J.    BENNETT,    D.    D. 

Who  his  own  self  bare  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree,  that  we,  being  dead  to  sins, 
should  live  imto  righteousness :  by  whose  stripes  ye  were  healed.  —  1  Peter  ii.  24.    .  .  241 

SERMON  XXI. 

BY    REV.    JAMES    BROMLEY. 

The  voice  said.  Cry.  And  he  said.  What  shall  I  cry  ?  All  flesh  ^  grass,  and  all  the 
goodhness  thereof  is  as  the  flower  of  the  field :  the  grass  withereth,  the  flower  fadeth : 
because  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  bloweth  upon  it:  surely  the  people  is  grass.  The  grass  with- 
ereth, the  flower  fadeth;  but  the  word  of  our  God  shall  stand  for  ever.  —  Isaiah  xl.  6 — 
8 250 


SERMON  XXII. 

BY    REV.    HENRY    MELVILL,    D.    D. 

Now  Elisha  was  fallen  sick  of  his  sickness,  whereof  he  died.  And  Joash,  the  king  of 
Israel,  came  down  unto  him,  and  wept  over  his  face,  and  said,  0  my  father,  my  father,  the 
chariot  of  Israel,  and  the  horsemen  thereof.  —  2  Kings  xiii.  14 260 


SERMON  XXIII. 

BY    REV.    ROBERT    NEWTON,    D.    D. 

Happy  is  that  people,  that  is  in  such  a  case ;  yea,  happy  is  that  people,  whose  God  is 
the  Lord." —  Psalm  cxliv.  15 272 

SERMON  XXIV. 

BY    REV.    ALEX.    FLETCHER,    D.    D. 
Sir,  we  would  see  Jesus. —  John  xii.  21 291 

SERMON  XXV. 

BY   REV.    TIMOTHY    EAST. 
Ye  will  not  come  to  me  that  ye  might  have  life.  —  John  v.  40 304 

^  SERMON  XXVI. 

BY    REV.    JAMES    SHERMAN.  * 

He  that  winneth  souls  is  wise.  —  Pbovebbs  xi.  30 81<S 


IS  CONTENTS. 

SERMON  XXVII. 

BY    REV.    J.    BELCHER,    D.    D. 

I  will  open  my  mouth  in  a  parable ;  I  will  uttei-  dark  sayings  of  old  ;  which  we  have  heard 
and  known,  and  our  fathers  have  told  us.  We  will  not  hide  them  from  their  children, 
showing  to  the  generation  to  come  the  praises  of  the  Lord,  and  his  strength,  and  his  won- 
derful works  that  he  hath  done.  For  he  established  a  testimony  in  Jacob,  and  appointed  a 
law  in  Israel,  which  he  commanded  our  fathers,  that  they  should  make  them  known  to  their 
children  ;  that  the  generation  to  come  might  know  them,  even  the  children  which  should  be 
born :  who  should  arise  and  declare  them  to  their  children :  that  they  might  set  their  hope 
in  God,  and  not  forget  the  works  of  God,  but  keep  his  commandments.  — Psalm  Ixxviii. 
2-7 331 


SERMON  XXVni.  - 

BY   THE    HON.    AND    REV.    B.    W.    NOEL. 

Whom  God  hath  set  forth  to  be  a  propitiation  through  faith  in  his  blood.  — Eom.  iii. 
86 340 


SERMON  XXIX. 

BY    KEV.    JOHN    GUMMING,    D.    D. 

Put  yourselves  in  array  against  Babylon  round  about ;  all  ye  that  bend  the  bow  shoot 
at  her,  spare  no  arrows ;  tor  she  hath  sinned  against  the  Lord. — Jek.  1.  14 353 


SERMON  XXX. 

BY    REV.    ROBERT    YOUNG. 

Let  him  know,  that  he  which  converteth  the  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  way,  shall  save 
ft  soul  from  death,  and  shall  hide  a  multitude  of  sins.  —James  v.  20 361 

SERMON  XXXI. 

BY     REV.      T.     ADKINS. 
The  glorious  Gospel  of  the  blessed  God.  —  1  Timothy  i.  11 876 

SERMON  XXXII. 

BY   REV.    TIMOTHY   GIBSON. 
What  Shan  a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul  ?  —  Matt.  xvi.  26 391 


THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 


SERMON   I. 

THE  NATURE  AND   UNREASONABLENESS   OF  UNBELIEF. 

BY    EEV.    J.    BUNTING,    D.D. 

"  And  he  marvelled  because  of  their  unbelief." — Mark  ti.  6. 

When  He,  by  -whom  the  world  was  made,  condescended  to  dwell 
among  men,  and  so  was  "  in  the  world,"  the  world  "  knew  him  not." 
"  He  came  unto  his  own,  and  his  own  received  him  not."  They  "  hid 
as  it  were  their  faces  from  him  ;  he  was  despised,  and  they  esteemed 
him  not."  And  by  none  of  our  Lord's  countrymen  was  that  saying 
more  fully  verified,  than  by  the  Nazarenes.  In  Nazareth  he  appeared 
as  an  infant ;  at  Nazareth  he  was  brought  up  ;  they  had  the  honor  of 
seeing  the  first  indications  of  his  superior  wisdom  and  piety.  It  was 
at  Nazareth  that  "  the  child  grew,  and  waxed  strong  in  spirit,  filled 
with  wisdom  ;  and  the  grace  of  God  was  with  him."  To  Nazareth  he 
returned,  after  his  celebrated  conversation  with  the  doctors  in  the  tem- 
ple ;  and  there  he  was  subject  to  Mary,  his  real  mother,  and  to  Joseph, 
his  reputed  father  ;  while  he  "  increased  in  wisdom  and  in  stature,  and 
in  favour  with  God  and  man."  It  was  at  Nazareth  that  he  wrought 
in  the  occupation  of  a  carpenter,  till  the  time  came  for  his  commenc- 
ing his  public  ministry.  It  was  at  Nazareth,  in  fine,  that  he  did  many 
of  his  most  wonderful  works.  His  brethren,  —  that  is,  his  kinsmen, — 
all  hved  there  ;  and  this,  together  with  other  circumstances,  would  nat- 
urally beget  in  our  Savior  some  particular  attachment  to  a  place  with 
which  he  had  been  so  long  connected :  it  would  be  his  wish,  that  the 
companions  of  his  early  life  should  be  made  partakers  of  the  benefits 
of  his  religion.  Accordingly  we  find,  that  at  the  commencement  of 
his  ministry  he  went  to  Nazareth;  and  entered  into  the  synagogue, 
"  as  Ms  custom  was."  —  I  wish  parents  to  notice  this,  for  their  encour- 
agement to  train  their  children  to  early  habits  of  piety ;  —  as  his  cus- 
tom was  or  had  been,  "  on  the  sabbath-day  he  stood  up  to  read  ; "  and 


14  ~  THE    ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

there  he  delivered  a  discourse  founded  on  a  passage  in  Isaiah.  At  the 
first  part  of  his  discourse  his  countrymen  were  dehghted,  and  "  won- 
dered at  the  gracious  words  which  proceeded  out  of  his  mouth."  But 
when  he  began  to  make  a  proper  apphcation  of  his  subject,  as  it 
became  him  to  do,  their  anger  was  greatly  roused ;  and  but  for  an 
interference  of  his  miraculous  power,  his  Ufe  had  paid  the  forfeit  of 
his  fidelity.  They  "  rose  up,  and  thrust  him  out  of  the  city,  and  led 
him  unto  the  brow  of  the  hill  whereon  their  city  was  built,  that  they 
might  cast  him  down  headlong.  But  he,"  perhaps  rendering  himself 
invisible,  or  them  powerless,  "  passing  through  the  midst  of  them,  went 
his  way."  So  ungrateful  a  reception  might  well  have  discouraged 
him,  or  induced  him  to  abandon  them  for  ever,  as  persons  who  judged 
themselves,  passed  sentence  on  themselves,  as  unworthy  of  eternal  life. 
But  our  Savior,  rich  in  mercy,  and  slow  to  anger,  has  here  taught  us 
to  be  "  patient  in  tribulation,"  and  to  persevere  in  doing  good,  though 
in  doing  it  we  sufier  only  ill.  Mark  tells  us,  and  we  have  reason  to 
believe,  from  comparing  other  circumstances,  that  it  was  only  a  few 
months  after,  that  "  he  came  to  his  own  country,  and  when  the  sab- 
bath day  was  come,  he  began  to  teach  in  the  synagogue."  As  on  the 
former  occasion,  the  people  were  at  first  struck  with  admiration,  and 
confessed  that  "  mighty  works  were  wrought  by  his  hands."  But, 
notwithstanding  their  conviction  of  the  truth  of  his  teaching,  and  the 
dignity  of  his  public  ministry,  their  minds  were  filled  with  prejudice  ; 
their  evil  heart  of  unbelief  was  not  subdued ;  and  they  were  not  pre- 
pared to  render  him  that  practical  homage  which  was  due  to  the  true 
Messiah.  To  justify  themselves  in  their  infidelity,  they  pretended  to 
doubt  the  truth  of  his  mission  ;  and  they  basely  and  ungenerously  re- 
counted the  meanness  and  obscurity  of  his  parentage,  and  the  defi- 
ciency of  his  education :  —  "Is  not  this  the  carpenter,  the  son  of  Mary, 
the  brother  of  James,  and  Joses,  and  of  Juda,  and  Simon  ?  and  are  not 
his  sisters  here  with  us  ?  And  they  were  offended  at  him."  The 
cause  of  this  was,  that  their  hearts  were  full  of  blindness  and  preju- 
dice, their  minds  were  worldly  and  carnal,  and  their  reasonings  were 
false  and  deceitful.  And  the  effects  of  this  were  deplorable  ;  for  it  is 
said  that  "  he  could  there  do  no  mighty  work,  save  that  he  laid  his 
hands  upon  a  few  sick  folk,  and  healed  them.  And  he  marvelled  be- 
cause of  their  unbelief."  —The  sin  of  unbelief  is  here  represented  in 
a  two-fold  point  of  view. 

1.  As  injurious  to  those  who  exercise  it.  "  He  could  there  do  no 
mighty  work."  They  did  not  believe  in  his  power,  and  therefore  they 
came  not  to  him  for  cure  ;  and  he  could  not  obtrude  his  goodness  upon 
them,  or  force  them  to  receive  benefits  from  him,  consistently  with  his 


THE   NATURE   OF   UNBELIEF.  15 

plan  and  determination.  "  How  much,"  says  the  excellent  Dr.  Dod- 
dridge, "  did  these  Nazarenes  lose,  by  their  obstinate  prejudices  against 
Jesus  !  How  many  diseased  bodies  might  have  been  cured,  how  many 
lost  souls  might  have  been  recovered  and  saved,  had  they  given  him  a 
better  reception !  "  And  you  will,  no  doubt,  joki  in  the  pious  wish 
which  the  Doctor  adds  :  "  May  divine  grace  deliver  us  from  that  un- 
belief, which  does,  as  it  were,  disarm  Christ  himself,  and  render  him 
a  savor  of  death,  rather  than  of  life,  to  our  souls !  "  But  unbeUef 
is  here  represented, 

2.  As  exceedingly  unreasonable  and  absurd.  "  He  marvelled  be- 
cause of  their  unbeUef ;  "  —  it  excited  the  surprise  of  Christ.  Unbe- 
lief is  altogether  without  reason ;  it  is  not  to  be  vindicated.  It  is 
contrary  to  the  duty  of  the  situation  and  circumstances  under  which 
men  are  placed ;  it  is  contrary  to  what  might  reasonably  be  expected 
from  such  men  under  such  circumstances.  It  is  to  this  last  view  of 
unbelief  that  we  propose  now  to  attend.  We  shall,  first,  explain  what 
we  mean  by  unbeUef ;  and,  sedondly,  justify  the  sentiment  of  surprise 
which  existed  in  the  mind  of  Christ  on  the  occasion  before  us. 

I.  Let  us  explain  what  vp'e  mean  by  unbelief. 

Unbelief,  in  general,  is  the  rejection  of  God's  revealed  truth ;  and, 
in  particular,  it  imphes  the  refusal  and  neglect  to  receive  and  act  on 
the  testimony  God  has  given  of  his  Son,  as  the  only  and  all-sufficient 
Savior  of  guilty  men. 

1.  The  unbelief  of  some  is  TOTKL.  This  imphes  a  rejection  oi  ^Q 
Messiah —  a  denial  of  his  Messiahship  —  a  total  refusal  to  admit  of  his 
being  the  way  to  life  and  blessedness.  Such  were  the  Sadducees  — 
such  were  many  of  the  ancient  Jews — and  such  are  evidently  the 
majority  of  them  to  this  day.  Nor  does  it  apply  to  Jews  alone  :  the 
same  word  which  tells  us  that  the  doctrine  of  Christ  was  "  a  stumbling- 
block  to  the  Jews,"  tells  us  that,  by  the  wise  and  philosophic  Greeks, 
it  was  despised  as  "  foolishness."  All  men  in  the  present  day  have 
not  even  nominal  faith  in  Christ.  I  speak  not  now  of  the  thousands 
of  heathens  who  are  not  believers  in  Christ ;  their  case,  whatever  it 
may  be,  is  not  unbelief  in  the  gospel ;  —  "  How  shall  they  beheve  in 
him  of  whom  they  have  not  heard  ?  And,  how  shall  they  hear  without 
a  preacher  ?  " —  their  case  is  rather  matter  of  our  compassion  than  of 
our  surprise.  But  it  is  matter  of  surprise  that,  in  a  Christian  country, 
many  to  whom  the  gospel  is  preached,  many  who  have  heard  the  joy- 
ful sound  of  salvation,  —  that  many  of  these  should  despise  the  majesty 
of  the  gospel,  and  refuse  to  give  it  that  credence  which  it  demands 
from  them. 


16  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

2.  Not  only  are  they  unbelievers  who  reject,  but  such  as  mutilate 
and  corrupt  Christianity.  There  are  many  who  profess  to  admire, 
and  even  to  defend  with  zeal  and  learning,  its  exterior  form  and  struc- 
ture, who  are  yet  among  the  very  foremost  to  deprive  it  of  all  its 
beauty,  and  to  rob  it  of  its  pecuhar  excellency.  Amongst  these,  I 
cannot  but  include  those  who,  while  they  admit  the  Messiahship  of 
Christ,  deny  his  divinity,  his  atonement,  and  his  dwelling  in  the  hearts 
of  beUevers  by  his  Holy  Spirit.  These  are  such  distinguishing  points 
in  Christian  truth,  that  he  who  systematically  denies  them  cannot,  with 
propriety,  be  called  a  believer  in  Christ.  He  admits  the  general 
words  of  Scripture,  but  he  puts  his  own  sense  upon  these  words,  —  a 
sense  very  different  from  that  which  was  put  upon  them  by  the  primi- 
tive church  —  a  sense  very  different  from  that  which  was  plainly  taught 
by  Christ  himself,  and  by  his  apostles.  He  builds  the  fabric  of  his 
hopes  on  a  different  foundation  from  that  which  God  has  laid  in  Zion, 
namely,,  on  Christ,  who  "  gave  himself  for  us,  an  offering  and  a  sacri- 
fice to  God  for  a  sweet-smelling  savor,"  and  by  whose  blood  alone  we 
can  be  cleansed  from  sin  ;  and  he  regards  as  so  enthusiastic  the  idea 
of  the  indwelhng  of  Christ  in  the  hearts  of  his  people  by  his  Holy 
Spirit,  that  there  is  no  room  in  his  creed  for  the  dominion  of  Christ  as 
King  in  Zion.  Thus,  though  he  believes  the  words  of  Scripture,  he 
believes  them  not  in  their  true  sense  :  and  as  he  is  not  a  believer,  he 
is,  of  course,  an  unbehever.  This  statement  is  no  violation  of  true 
candor,  for  that  requires  attention  to  be  paid  to  truth  ;  and  that  can- 
dor which  does  not  render  due  homage  to  the  truth,  is  sin.  However 
common  and  fashionable  this  spurious  candor  may  be  among  men,  it  is 
an  abomination  to  God,  whose  truth  it,  in  fact,  denies.  For  those  who 
believe  not,  we  are  required  to  feel  the  tenderest  pity ;  for  them  we 
are  to  use  our  best  efforts,  to  offer  up  our  most  fervent  prayers.  Per- 
haps the  passage  which  will  best  explain  our  duty  in  this  respect,  is 
found  in  the  epistle  to  Timothy  ;  —  "  The  servant  of  the  Lord  must  not 
strive  :  but  be  gentle  unto  all  men,  apt  to  teach,  patient,  in  meekness 
instructing  those  that  oppose  themselves ;  if  God  peradventure  will 
give  them  repentance  to  the  acknowledging  of  the  truth ;  and  that 
they  may  recover  themselves  out  of  the  snare  of  the  devil,  who  are 
taken  captive  by  him  at  his  will."  Now,  this  passage,  so  far  from 
warranting  indifference  to  the  truth,  represents  the  truth  as  a  matter 
of  the  greatest  importance ;  the  very  end  of  our  instructions  is  here 
stated  to  be  that  such  persons  may  be  brought  to  repentance  and  ac- 
knowledging of  the  truth  ;  and  it  is  only  as  they  repent  and  acknowl- 
edge the  truth,  which  they  before  denied,  that  they  can  be  recovered 
out  of  the  snare  of  the  devil,  and  brought  to  true  repentance.     That 


THE  NATURE   OP  UNBELIEF.  17 

is  a  false  love,  a  fictitious  tenderness,  -which  represents  error  as  not 
dangerous  ;  and  which  declares  that  it  matters  not  ■what  we  believe, 
though  God  declares  that  he  that  believeth  not  the  gospel,  —  the  pure 
unmutilated  gospel,  —  shall  be  damned.  Let  us  not  hide  the  truth, 
which  we  are  called  by  God  as  a  church  to  exhibit.  It  is  not  for  the 
support  of  light  and  unimportant  truths  that  the  church  is  called  "  the 
pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth  :  "-^no  :  the  truth  is  of  importance  ;  it 
is  essential  to  salvation  ;  and  men  should  see  in  our  whole  manner  that 
we  consider  the  truth  as  nothing  less  than  a  matter  of  hfe  and  death. 

3.  The  neglecters  of  the  gospel,  as  well  as  its  rejecters  and  corrup- 
ters, are  guilty  of  unbelief,  though  in  a  more  mitigated  form,  I  grant. 
These  hold  the  truth,  but  they  hold  it  in  unrighteousness  ;  like  a  man 
who  holds  a  torch,  only  to  convince  those  who  behold  him  that  the  per- 
son who  bears  it  is  going  sadly  out  of  the  way.  Our  Lord  condemns 
all  such ;  and  it  is  evident  they  deserve  condemnation,  because  no 
salutary  effects  are  produced  by  their  profession  of  faith.  Such  per- 
sons are  unbelievers,  and  it  is  necessary  that  the  truth  should  be  told 
tiem.  Faith  works  by  love  :  the  faith  of  God's  elect  is  not  a  mere 
opinion ;  it  impUes  a  belief  of  the  excellency,  the  suitableness,  the 
eflBcacy  of  the  gospel ;  such  a  conviction  of  this  as  will  lead  men  to 
embrace  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  the  chief  subject,  the  substance  of 
the  gospel ;  such  a  conviction  as  leads  to  the  use  of  Christ  for  the  ends 
for  which  God  has  given  him,  namely,  for  "  wisdom,  righteousness, 
sanctification,  and  redemption." 

Now,  if  such  persons  are  not  believers  at  all,  how  awfully  prevalent 
is  the  sin  of  unbelief!  Among  those  who  call  our  Savior  Lord,  and 
who,  generally  speaking,  receive  his  truth,  how  many  are  there  who 
do  not  believe  with  the  heart  unto  righteousness !  They  have  no  clear 
view  of  their  need  of  Christ  as  a  Savior ;  no  decided  reliance  upon 
him  ;  no  clear  application  of  his  merits  and  atonement.  They  hear 
and  read  of  Christ ;  they  join  in  hymns  to  his  praise  ;  they  approach 
him  with  their  lips ;  —  but  there  is  no  affectionate  trust  of  the  heart. 
These,  then,  ai-e  unbeUevers :  God  the  Judge  will  not  admit  that  this 
faith  is  saving  ;  it  is  dead  faith,  and  cannot  save  them. 

4.  Even  in  those  who  are  partly  renewed  hy  grace,  there  are  the 
secret  workings  of  this  principle.  Though  it  is  in  a  form  more  mild, 
it  is  yet  to  be  discovered  ;  and,  in  proportion  as  it  exists,  it  mars  the 
progress  of  the  work  of  grace  in  their  souls.  I  may  instance  a  case 
or  two. 

There  is  the  penitent  sinner,  who  is  seeking,  but  has  not  yet  found, 
the  pardon  of  his  sins.     In  such  persons  there  is  to  be  perceived  some 
good  thing  toward  the  God  of  Israel ;  and  much  that,  if  followed  up, 
2 


18  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

will  lead  to  good.  They  are  not  far  from  the  kingdom  of  God :  they 
have  some  knowledge,  and  some  faith.  Now,  to  such,  God's  word 
holds  out  the  most  gracious  promises  ;  —  "  Ask,  and  ye  shall  receive ; 
seek,  and  ye  shall  find;  knock,  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto  you." 
"  Him  that  cometh  unto  me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out."  And  yet,  in 
many  cases,  from  week  to  week,  from  month  to  month,  from  year  to 
year,  the  effect  of  all  these  kind  promises  and  gracious  invitations  is 
baffled  by  a  secret  something,  which  refuses  to  be  comforted  when  God 
would  comfort ;  which  puts  away  the  mercy  which  God  waits  to  be- 
stow ;  which  still  exclaims,  "  The  mercy  of  the  Lord  is  clean  gone  for 
ever  !  he  will  be  merciful  to  others,  but  not  to  me  !  "  Now,  what  is 
this  secret  something,  which  keeps  the  man  who  is  convinced  of  sin, 
and  who  wishes  for  pardon,  and  who  knows  that  without  it  he  shall  be 
ruined  for  ever  ? — what  is  it,  I  say,  which  keeps  him  out  of  the  pos- 
session of  pardoning  mercy  ?  —  what  is  it  ?  Satan  calls  it  humility 
and  diffidence  ;  and  he  keeps  you  out  of  the  blessing,  by  telhng  you 
it  is  not  proper  for  one  so  sinful  and  so  worthless  to  lay  hold  on  the 
blessings  of  salvation,  and  that  you  are  only  acting  the  part  of  a  hum- 
ble man  to  keep  aloof  from  those  blessings.  This  Satan  tells  you :  but 
he  is  a  liar,  and  the  father  of  Ues.  0  listen  not  to  that  arch  fiend, 
when  he  pretends  to  preach  humility !  No :  the  real  name  of  the 
principle  that  keeps  you  back  is  pride,  and  not  humility.  Real  humil- 
ity will  not  lead  to  unbehef ;  it  will'  rather  lead  men  to  cry  for  mercy, 
and  cause  them  to  flee  to  the  only  refuge  that  is  set  before  them. 

And  even  those  who  believe,  but  are  not  yet  made  perfect  in  love, 
are  under  the  influence  of  unbelief  in  part.  As  unbelief  prevents  the 
sinner  from  entering  into  God's  family ;  so  unbelief,  in  one  who  is  a 
child,  prevents  him  from  the  enjoyment  of  the  privileges  of  God's  fam- 
ily. Take  an  example.  —  There  are  found,  in  the  word  of  God,  "  ex- 
ceeding great  and  precious  promises  ; "  promises  of  a  clean  heart,  and 
a  right  spirit ;  promises  of  complete  recovery  to  the  image  of  God  ; 
promises  of  being  sanctified  wholly,  body,  soul,  and  spirit ;  promises 
of  being  preserved  blameless  to  the  coming  of  the  day  of  the  Lord. 
And  what  hinders  the  man,  who  sees  the  beauty  and  excellency  of 
holiness,  and  beholds  it  so  clearly  and  abundantly  promised  —  what 
hinders  him  from  entering  on  the  full  possession  of  it  ?  In  some  cases 
it  may  be  want  of  perception  of  its  beauty,  and  the  possibility  of  at- 
taining it ;  but,  in  general,  it  is  want  of  faith. 

Take  another  case.  In  some  dark  and  cloudy  day  a  man  has  yield- 
ed to  temptation  ;  he  has  committed  sin,  and  he  is  filled  with  misery. 
But  this,  his  guilt,  he  acknowledges  ;  he  does  not  attempt  to  palliate 
it ;  and  it  is  the  privilege  of  such  a  man  to  come  to  God  as  at  first  he 


THE  NATURE   OF  UNBELIEF.  19 

came,  and  to  obtain  a  renewal  of  that  favor  which  he  has  forfeited. 
And  what  is  it  that  induces  him  to  postpone  the  apphcation  for  this 
mercy  to  a  future  period  ?  "What  prevents  him  approaching  the  foun- 
tain opened  ?  What  prompts  him  to  seek  to  wear  his  stain  away,  in- 
stead of  coming  to  have  it  washed  away  at  once  ?  Satan  persuades 
him  that  the  principle  which  thus  keeps  him  from  God  his  Father,  who 
is  waiting  to  be  gracious  to  him,  and  receive  him  back  to  his  favor,  is 
shame,  holy  shame,  ingenuous  shame  ;  — but  it  is  really  unbelief.  We 
ought  to  be  ashamed  of  having  been  negligent,  of  having  been  unfaith- 
ful, of  having  been  sinners ;  but  we  ought  not  to  be  ashamed  of  coming 
to  God  for  forgiveness  ;  we  ought  to  remember  that  these  words  belong 
to  us  —  "  These  things  write  I  unto  you,  that  ye  sin  not.  And  if  any 
man  sin,  we  have  an  advocate  with  the  Father,  Jesus  Christ  the  right- 
eous :  and  he  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins." 

And  I  might  observe,  that  unbelief  operates,  in  a  degree,  in  believ- 
ers in  Christ.  It  is  so  in  cases  of  affliction,  of  trial,  of  difficulty.  Be- 
lievers are  sometimes  in  circumstances  in  which  they  are  ready  to  say, 
"  My  way  is  hid  from  the  Lord  :  my  God  hath  forgotten  me  !  "  in  op- 
position to  his  word,  who  hath  said,  "  I  will  never  leave  thee  ;  I  will 
never  forsake  thee !  "  But  I  cannot  dwell  longer  on  this  part ;  and 
you  can  easily  apply  these  remarks  to  other  cases.     I  proceed, 

ii.  to  justify  the  expression  op  astonishment  on  the  part  of 
Christ. 

It  is  said  that  "  he  marvelledhec2in5e  of  their  unbelief."  — 'Unbelief 
is  altogether  unreasonable  and  unbecoming. 

1.  How  unreasonable,  for  instance,  was  the  unhelief  which  our  Lord 
tvitnessed  in  the  days  of  his  flesh.  The  unbelief  of  these  men  at  Naz- 
areth was  marked  with  great  stupidity,  and  chargeable  with  great  folly. 
For,  consider  tvhat  opportunities  they  had  been  favored  with  of  seeing 
our  Lord's  early  character,  and  of  listening  to  his  propitious  doctrines. 
The  superior  sanctity,  which  marked  his  childhood,  ought  to  have  made 
strong  impressions  on  their  minds  ;  and  ought  to  have  led  them  to  in- 
vestigate carefully,  and  to  receive  honestly  the  convictions  of  their 
minds.  An  unbelief  so  blind  as  theirs  was  surely  unreasonable.  Con- 
sider, also,  their  confession  of  his  ivisdo-m  and  power.  "  From  whence," 
exclaimed  they,  "  hath  this  man  these  things  ?  and  what  wisdom  is  this 
which  is  given  unto  him,  that  such  mighty  works  are  wrought  by  his 
hands  ?  "  The  fact  they  admitted  ;  the  evidences  were  too  strong  to 
be  resisted.  Why,  then,  did  they  not  at  once  proceed  to  draw  the  on- 
ly rational  inference,  namely,  that  he  was  a  divine  person  ?  Their  un- 
belief was  unreasonable.     Advert,  also,  to  the  nature  of  the  excuses 


20  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

they  presented  for  it.  They  talked  of  the  meanness  of  his  education  — 
of  the  poverty  of  his  circumstances — of  the  narrowness  of  his  means. 
Why,  these  were  the  very  circumstances  that  ought  to  have  induced 
faith.  For  if  natural  causes  could  not  produce  such  surprising  effects, 
how  very  rational  to  conclude  that  they  were  produced  by  supernatu- 
ral causes.  Then,  their  possession  of  the  ancient  Scriptures  left  them 
without  excuse.  They  had  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah  ;  and  they  might 
have  read  them  if  they  had  not  wilfully  neglected  so  to  do.  His  fifty 
third  chapter  would  have  told  them  that  Christ  was  to  be  "  as  a  root  out 
of  a  dry  ground  ; "  that  he  would  be  destitute  of  any  outward  "  form,  or 
comeliness,  or  beauty,"  which  should  lead  men  to  "  desire  him."  All 
this  justifies  the  strong  sensation  of  surprise,  on  the  part  of  our  Savior, 
at  so  much  insensibility.  "  He  marvelled  ; "  he  who  well  knew  what 
was  in  man,  and  how  depraved  and  how  very  unreasonable  man  natu- 
rally was  —  even  He  was  surprised ;  even  the  Searcher  of  hearts  "  mar- 
velled, because  of  the  unbelief"  they  manifested ! 

2.  The  same  unreasonableness  attaches  to  modern  as  to  ancient  un- 
belief. Let  us  consider  this  in  reference  to  the  various  descriptions  of 
unbelief  we  noticed  in  the  first  part  of  the  discourse. 

First.  On  what  do  our  modern  infidels  rest  their  unbelief  ?  Do  they 
plead  WANT  OF  evidence  ?  How  base  and  ungrounded  is  their  asser- 
tion !  Let  them  study  our  Christianity ;  let  them  institute  a  strict 
comparison  between  its  various  parts ;  let  them  look  at  the  long  chain 
of  prophecies  by  which  it  was  introduced ;  let  them  consider  the  mira- 
cles by  which  its  verity  was  attested  —  its  pure  salutary  truths  and 
doctrines ;  let  them  mark  the  astonishing  rapidity  of  its  early  progress — 
its  progress  in  opposition  to  all  obstructions,  and  to  the  most  determin- 
ed hostility  ;  and  that  it  came  not  with  any  appeal  to  the  passions,  or  pro- 
claiming any  truce  to  the  vices,  but  with  the  force  of  truth  alone,  and 
denouncing  all  the  vices.  Let  them,  I  say,  consider  this  body  and 
weight  of  evidence  ;  which,  if  considered  aright,  is  more  than  enough 
to  weigh  down  all  their  objections,  and  which,  if  rejected,  exposes  them 
most  justly  to  t\ie  charge  of  unreasonable  unbelief.  But  our  religion, 
they  allege,  contains  in  it  so  many  mystekies,  and  that  these  ought  to 
lead  them  to  its  rejection.  But  this  very  circumstance,  we  say,  is  an 
additional  argument  for  faith.  If  Christianity  told  us  nothing  but  what 
the  book  of  nature  teaches,  it  could  not  be  from  God.  Surely,  if  God 
write  a  book,  it  must  contain  something  of  which  the  ear  hath  not  heard, 
which  the  eye  hath  not  seen,  and  of  which  the  human  heart  hath  not 
conceived.  As  in  the  earth,  while  surveying  the  works  of  nature,  and 
perceiving  their  peculiar  skill  and  adaptation,  we  infer  that  they  are 
the  produce  of  a  Divine  hand ;  so,  in  what  are  termed  the  mysteries 


TEE  NATURE   OF  UNBELIEF.  21 

of  religion,  we  see  abundant  proofs  of  a  Divine  hand.  And  besides,  if 
we  are  to  doubt  because  of  what  is  mysterious,  where  is  scepticism  to 
end  ?  We  see  mystery  all  around  us  ;  and  if  we  are  not  to  believe  till 
we  can  comprehend,  we  shall  never  believe  at  all.  It  is  absurd,  it  is 
monstrous,  to  reject  the  truth  of  God,  because  it  teaches  us  something 
which,  but  for  it,  we  could  not  understand  !  And  ^mther peculiar  crim- 
inality and  unreasonableness  attaches  to  modern  than  could  attach  to 
ancient  infidelity.  On  us  "  the  ends  of  the  world  are  come  ; "  to  us  the 
system  of  Christianity  is  more  fully  explained,  and  the  glory  of  God 
shines  forth  with  greater  radiancy,  in  the  person  and  work  of  Jesus 
Christ.  The  beneficial  efiects  of  the  system  have  been  illustrated  by 
many  striking  facts  in  our  days,  which  were  not  known  to  our  fathers. 
The  argument  for  Christianity  is  stronger ;  it  has  grown,  and  is  still 
growing,  with  the  growth  of  information.  On  the  infidels  of  these  days, 
therefore,  the  benevolent  Savior  may  well  look  down  with  mingled  emo- 
tions of  surprise  and  indignation  ;  he  may  well  be  alike  grieved  for  the 
hardness  of  their  hearts,  and  surprised  at  the  strength  of  their  infatua- 
tion ! 

Secondly.  And  what  shall  I  say  of  the  unreasonableness  of  the  next 
class,  —  a  disbelief  of  the  principal  doctrines  of  Christianity  ?  Is  not 
this  unreasonable  f  When  a  man  writes  a  book  for  his  fellow-men,  if 
his  object  be  to  instruct  philosophers  and  the  learned,  he  adapts  his 
style  to  them ;  but  if  he  be  anxious  to  instruct  the  mass  of  men  —  if  he 
would  benefit  the  unlearned,  and  those  who  are  incapable  of  deep  and 
critical  inquiry,  —  then  he  writes  in  a  plain  and  popular  style,  that  all 
who  read  may  at  once  comprehend  his  meaning.  Now,  apply  this  to 
the  book  which  God  has  given.  The  poor  and  uneducated  form  the 
mass  of  the  people  ;  their  instruction  and  benefit  must  therefore  be  re- 
garded ;  and  if  he  be  a  good  and  gracious  God,  then  a  plain  and  sim- 
ple man  will  be  able  to  collect  his  meaning  from  the  plain  language  and 
letter  of  his  word.  Those  who  reject  the  great  truths  of  the  Bible 
pretend  to  say  that  a  great  part  of  the  Bible  is  not  to  be  understood 
according  as  the  words  appear  on  the  surface.  They  tell  us  about  cor- 
ruptions ;  and  they  explain  much  of  its  contents  away  into  Eastern  sim- 
iles. But  let  any  plain,  unsophisticated  man,  any  man  whose  mind  is 
not  prejudiced  and  perverted  by  tortured  criticisms,  —  let  any  honest 
man  regard  the  corruptions,  as  they  term  them,  of  the  Scriptures,  and 
he  will  find  them  to  be  the  very  vital  and  important  truths  of  the  sys- 
tem. But  there  is  some  reason  to  think  that  men  are  beginning  to  get 
tired  of  this  rational  system  ;  and  to  see  that  they  must  either  follow 
Scripture,  as  it  is,  or  go  at  once  to  Deism  :  they  begin  now  to  find  that 
the  half-way  house,  as  it  has  been  termed,  between  Deism  and  Chris- 


'12  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

tianitj,  is  untenable.  And  let  those  ■who  attempt  to  take  refuge  there, 
let  these  half  way-house-n^en  take  care,  lest  God  should  say  to  them,  as 
he  said  to  ancient  Chaldea  —  "  Thy  Tvisdom  and  thy  knowledge,  it  hath 
perverted  thee  ! " 

8.  But  the  form  of  unbelief -which  is  the  most  extraordinary,  is  that 
of  the  neglecters  of  salvation :  those  who  hold  the  truth,  but  hold  it  in 
unrighteousness.  You  will  not  surely  account  us  your  enemies  if  we 
tell  you  the  truth.  We  say  that  there  are  many  who  admit  the  truth 
of  the  gospel,  and  yet  neglect  its  great  salvation.  If  we  speak  of  such 
characters,  we  must  speak  in  the  terms  which  belong  to  them :  we  ac- 
cuse you  of  conduct  which,  if  it  were  exemplified  in  the  common  affairs 
of  Ufe,  would  justly  expose  you  to  the  charge  of  inconsistency  and  irra- 
tionahty.  I  will  endeavor  to  set  out  your  conduct  before  you,  and  I 
entreat  you  to  let  your  consciences  go  with  me.  You  say  that  you  be- 
lieve the  gospel  to  be  of  God;  that  "  at  the  first  it  began  to  be  spoken 
by  the  Lord,  and  was  confirmed  unto  us  by  them  that  heard  him  ;  God 
also  bearing  them  -witness,  both  with  signs  and  wonders,  and  with  divers 
miracles,  and  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  according  to  his  own  will ;  "  you 
say  that  you  beheve  in  his  Scripture  ;  —  and  yet  —  you  live  in  habitual 
opposition  to  what  you  know  to  be  the  requirements,  and  what  you 
know  to  be  the  privileges  of  this  gospel !  Tou  say  that  you  believe  in 
the  existence  of  a  God ;  a  God  who  is  present  in  all  places  ;  who  is  in- 
timately acquainted  with  all  your  thoughts,  and  words,  and  actions  ;  — 
and  yet — you  go  on,  day  after  day,  in  a  career  which  you  know  he 
must  hate  !  You  say  that  you  believe  him  to  be  a  just  God  ;  and  that 
he  who  is  the  Maker  of  all  the  earth  shall  be  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth ; 
and  that  he  has  prepared  the  thunderbolts  of  his  wrath,  that  he  may 
take  vengeance  on  them  that  know  not  God,  and  that  obey  not  his 
will ;  —  and  yet  —  you  continually  defy  this  authority,  and  expose 
yourselves  to  this  vengeance  !  You  sayjon  believe  that  you  have  im- 
mortal souls  ;  that  when  you  leave  this  world  you  must  go  into  another 
state  ;  that  this  other  state  must  be  regulated  by  your  present  charac- 
ter and  conduct ;  that  there  is  a  state  of  happiness  for  the  holy,  and  of 
misery  for  the  unholy  ;  and  yet  —  you  act  as  if  you  had  no  souls  ;  as 
if  there  were  no  future  state  ;  as  if  heaven  were  a  delusion,  and  hell 
were  a  chimera  !  —  You  say  that  you  believe  Jesus  Christ  came  from 
heaven  to  earth  to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost ;  that  he  was  delivered  for 
the  offences  of  men,  and  rose  again  for  their  justification,  and  returned 
to  heaven,  that  he  might  intercede  for  them  and  send  them  down  all 
the  blessings  of  his  salvation  ;  and  you  come  to  hear  his  truth  proclaim- 
ed to  you  Sabbath  after  Sabbath  ;  and,  such  is  the  force  of  habit,  you 
would  be  quite  uncomfortable  if  you  did  not  Hsten  to  these  things  j  — 


THE  KATtTRE  OF  UNBELIEF.  23 

and  yet  —  you  are  quite  content  to  have  no  experience  of  this  Savior's 
pardoning  mercy  and  sanctifying  grace  !  —  I  might  pursue  this  train 
of  remark  ;  but  from  what  has  been  said,  you  see  how  clearly  a  charge 
of  the  most  marvellous  unbelief  and  absurdity  may  be  made  out  against 
you.  You  kiss  the  Savior,  like  Judas,  and  like  him  you  betray  him 
for  this  world's  good.  You  call  him  Lord,  but  you  do  not  the  things 
which  he  says.  You  sleep  as  quietly  in  your  beds,  after  we  have  as- 
sured you,  upon  his  authority,  that  you  are  in  danger  of  eternal  perdi- 
tion, as  if  you  had  never  heard  a  word  about  the  matter !  and  it  is 
more  than  probable  that  some  of  you  will  do  so  this  very  night !  And 
how  is  this  ?  Is  it  not  marvellous  ?  "Well  may  Christ  be  grieved  and 
wonder  !  Is  it  not  marvellous  insensibility  to  what  you  acknowledge 
to  be  so  valuable  and  important  ?  Is  it  not  a  proof  of  marvellous  unbe- 
lief, to  disregard  a  blessing  which  you  yourselves  allow  to  be  attaina- 
ble ?  Is  it  not  a  marvellous  disregard  of  all  the  thunders  of  the  divine 
WTath,  which  you  must  confess  are  hanging  over  your  heads  ?  0  that 
you  were  willing  to  follow  up  the  convictions  of  your  own  minds  !  that 
you  would  not  attempt  to  get  rid  of  them  in  an  unhallowed  way !  that 
you  would  cherish  them  by  reading  the  Scriptures  and  pious  books,  by 
meditation,  by  prayer,  by  intercourse  with  Christians,  and  by  the  use 
of  all  the  means  which  God  has  appointed  to  save  souls  from  the  wrath 
to  come  ! 

4.  I  speak  to  those,  also,  who,  though  not  loving  sin,  but  truly  con- 
vinced of  their  sinfulness  and  consequent  danger,  hating  sin,  and  de- 
sirous of  being  freed  from  it;  yet  go  on  for  weeks,  and  months,  and 
even  years,  ivithout  finding  the  mercy  which  Crod  has  proiyiised,  —  with- 
out obtaining  the  blessings  of  pardon,  of  adoption,  of  hoUness,  of  conso- 
lation, of  the  Holy  Spirit's  influence.  Come,  and  let  me  expostulate 
with  you.  There  are  many  such  in  all  our  congregations,  and  in  all 
our  societies.  It  is  a  fact,  that  if  we  have  a  thousand  members,  we 
find  at  least  a  hundred,  to  whose  general  seriousness  we  can  make  no 
exception,  whose  conduct  is  marked  by  regularity  ;  who  yet  cannot, 
with  satisfaction  to  their  ministers  and  fellow  Christians,  declare  what 
God  has  done  for  their  souls.  There  are,  no  doubt,  therefore,  some 
such  present  this  evening.  Now,  let  me  expostulate  with  you :  look 
at  your  case.  0  that  I  may  be  assisted  to  say  something  which  shall 
lead  you  this  night  to  lay  hold  on  Christ !  something  that  shall  make 
you  ashamed  of  your  unbelief  in  my  Savior  and  yours  !  something  that 
shall  convince  you  that,  when  he  opens  his  arms  to  receive  you,  you 
have  no  right  to  run  away  from  him  ;  that  you  have  no  right  to  close 
your  ears  to  his  inviting  voice  ;  that  it  is  your  duty,  as  well  as  your  in- 
terest, to  lay  hold  on  his  mercy,  and  to  receive  the  blessings  which  he 


24  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

has  pressed  on  your  acceptance  in  the  exuberance  of  his  kindness ! 
Now,  what  does  he  say  ?  —  "  Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  are  heavy  lad- 
en, and  I  will  give  you  rest.  I,  even  I,  am  he  that  blotteth  out  thy 
transgressions  for  mine  own  sake,  and  will  not  remember  thy  sins.  Come 
now,  and  let  us  reason  together,  saith  the  Lord  :  Though  your  sins  be 
as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  as  white  as  snow ;  though  they  be  red  like 
crimson,  they  shall  be  as  wool."  But  I  need  not  repeat  these  promises : 
what  you  want  is,  not  the  knowledge  of  them,  —  you  have  heard  them 
read  a  hundred  times  ;  —  no ;  what  you  want  is,  to  believe,  to  embrace 
them.  These  promises  point  out  you  —  you  yourselves  —  as  the  very 
persons  who  want  these  good  things.  And  0,  consider  that  these 
promises  are  confirmed  —  confirmed  by  a  solemn  oath  ;  "  that  by  two 
immutable  things,  in  which  it  was  impossible  for  God  to  lie,  they  might 
have  a  strong  consolation,  who  have  fled  for  refuge  to  lay  hold  on  the 
hope  set  before  them."  You  have  heard  God's  promise,  — now  hear 
God's  oath.  0,  infinite  condescension  !  You  doubt  his  word  —  shame 
on  you !  but  he  does  not  desert  you  for  your  sin.  Now,  hear  it,  peni- 
tent !  hear  the  oath  of  thy  God.  We  have  it  on  record  in  his  own  book: 
it  is  written  for  your  comfort.  Listen  —  "  As  I  hve,  saith  the  Lord 
God,  I  have  no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  the  wicked  ;  but  that  the  wick- 
ed turn  from  his  way  and  live  :  turn  ye,  turn  ye,  from  your  evil  ways ; 
for  why  will  ye  die  ?  "  God  tells  you,  by  his  hfe,  that  he  is  ready  to 
save  you  —  to  save  you  now.  And  this  promise,  and  this  oath,  have 
been  sealed  by  the  blood  of  Christ ;  and  "  he  that  spared  not  his  own 
Son,  but  delivered  him  up  for  us  all,  how  shall  he  not  with  him  also 
freely  give  us  all  things  ?  "  And  this  promise,  and  this  oath,  have 
been  confirmed  by  the  resurrection  of  Christ.  By  this  we  are  taught 
that  the  sacrifice  he  presented  was  accepted  —  that  God  is  satisfied  ; 
and  that  there  is  nothing  even  in  his  justice  to  hinder  him  from  pardon- 
ing you.  Hence  the  language  of  the  apostle  to  the  Hebrews ;  —  "  Now 
the  God  of  peace,  that  brought  again  from  the  dead  our  Lord  Jesus, 
that  great  Shepherd  of  the  sheep,  through  the  blood  of  the  everlasting 
covenant,  make  you  perfect !  "  and  so  on.  0,  what  comfort  is  contain- 
ed in  these  words  !  God  is  "  the  God  of  peace!  "  Why,  we  might 
have  been  charged  to  tell  you  that  God  is  "  a  man  of  war."  —  But  no ; 
we  have  to  proclaim  him  to  you  as  "  the  God  of  peace."  He  has  a 
peaceful  disposition  towards  you ;  and  he  has  proved  this  by  raising  up 
Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead. 

It  is  possible  that  we  may  have  erred  in  telling  you  that  this  is  your 
privilege,  and  not  dwelling  sufiiciently  upon  it  as  your  duty.  It  is  your 
duty  to  believe  ;  it  is  a  great  crime  you  are  guilty  of  in  not  coming  to 
God  for  the  pardon  of  your  sins,  when  he  has  told  you  so  plainly  and 


THE   NATURE   OF  UNBELIEF.  25 

SO  repeatedly  that  he  waits  to  bestow  that  pardon.  You  believe  the 
word  of  jonv  fellow-men :  to-morrow  you  will  take  their  word,  perhaps, 
twenty  times  in  the  day,  in  the  course  of  your  business  ;  but  you  will 
not  take  the  word  of  Crod;  you  must  behold  something  extraordinary, 
you  must  have  some  miracle  performed,  before  you  believe  God  !  And 
is  not  this  most  marvellous,  most  unreasonable  ?  Will  it  not  be  infi- 
nitely better  to  take  him  at  his  word,  and  receive  the  blessing  ?  Why, 
part  of  his  word  you  do  believe  :  —  you  do  believe  his  threatenings ! 
when  he  says  that  "  the  wicked  man  shall  surely  die,"  this  you  firmly 
believe.  But  another  part  of  his  word,  —  that  very  part  which  is  most 
suited  to  your  case,  —  you  put  away  from  you !  Tou  say  that  you  are 
not  ready  yet ;  that  you  are  not  worthy  yet !  0  the  marvellous  ab- 
surdity of  tliis  unbelief !  Men  under  the  influence  of  this  vile  princi- 
ple will  absolutely  believe  all  but  that  which  they  are  required  to  be- 
lieve, —  that  which  most  of  all  concerns  them  to  believe,  —  that  "  this 

IS  A  FAITHFUL  SAYING,  AND  WORTHY  OF  ALL  ACCEPTATION,  THAT  JeSUS 

Christ  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners."  I  now  proclaim  it 
to  you :  —  take  it  home  to  yourselves :  —  say, 

"  Who  did  for  every  sinner  die, 
Hath  surely  died  for  me.^* 

For  me  he  hath  obtained  that  redemption  which  is  of  so  much  value ; 
that,  without  which  I  must  for  ever  have  perished  !  "  Sayest  thou 
this  ?  —  Then  tJwu  art  the  very  man  for  my  Savior  !  Thou  art  the 
very  man  on  whom  he  now  looks  down,  on  whom  he  now  waits  to  be 
gracious ! 

I  have  already  trespassed  so  unwarrantably  upon  your  time,  that  I 
must  leave  you  to  apply  this  train  of  thought  to  other  cases  of  unbelief 
which  will  present  themselves  readily  to  your  mind.  We  may  learn 
from  this  subject, 

1.  The  marvellous  corruption  of  human  nature,  from  whence  all  this 
mibelief  originates.  If  man  was  as  he  came  out  of  the  hands  of  his 
Maker,  he  would  receive  with  simple,  confiding  love,  all  that  he  has 
said,  and  listen  implicitly  to  all  his  assurances.  Faith  has  its  seat  in 
the  heart ;  and  so  has  unbelief;  hence  we  read  of"  an  evil  heart  of 
unbeUef."  Man  is  very  far  gone  from  original  righteousness.  Now, 
as  unbelief  took  us  away  from  God,  so  faith  alone  can  bring  us  back  to 
God,  and  prepare  us  for  an  ultimate  admission  into  heaven.     See  also, 

2.  The  necessity  of  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  This  is  necessa- 
ry, that  faith  may  be  inspired,  and  kept  in  exercise,  and  brought  to  ma- 
turity. If  unbelief  be  in  the  heart  by  nature,  it  is  not  the  nicest  train 
of  reasoning,  it  is  not  all  the  power  of  moral  suasion,  that  can  produce 
faith.     True  faith  is  supomatural ;  the  apostle  tells  the  Philippians 


216  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

that  it  had  been  "  given  them  to  believe  in  his  name."  You  must  be- 
lieve :  believing  is  your  act ;  but  it  is  an  act  of  a  heart  renewed  by  the 
grace  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  by  the  same  almighty  and  efficacious  power 
by  which  Christ  was  raised  from  the  dead.  Look  at  the  case  of  infi- 
dels ;  other  means  are  employed  in  abundance,  but  they  remain  infi- 
dels still ;  while  others  have  been  converted  from  infidehty  in  the  ab- 
sence of  all  human  means.  Look  at  the  case  of  Saul  of  Tarsus ;  he 
was  a  most  bigoted  Pharisee,  and  a  furious  and  determined  persecutor  ; 
and  he  was  not  made  into  a  sincere  and  humble  Christian,  and  a  zeal- 
ous and  successful  preacher,  by  books,  or  by  human  argumentation. 
The  miraculous  light,  and  the  voice  from  heaven,  might  arouse  his  at- 
tention, but  it  was  by  an  immediate  and  direct  interference  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  that  the  change  was  eifected,  and  true  faith  was  inspired.  The 
conversion  of  Vanderkemp,  also,  is  a  case  fully  in  point ;  a  conversion 
scarcely  less  remarkable  than  that  of  the  apostle  Paul.  From  a  Ger- 
man infidel,  infidehty,  perhaps,  of  the  most  specious  and  dangerous 
kind,  Vanderkemp,  without  human  interference,  became  a  zealous 
Christian.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  good  books,  that  wise  and  pious 
information,  are  to  be  despised ;  but  I  do  mean  to  say,  that  the  great 
fault  is  in  men's  hearts  ;  and  that  it  is  necessary  that  the  heart  should 
be  prepared  by  the  operation  of  the  Spirit,  to  receive  the  truth  in  the 
love  of  it.  And  that,  though  the  mind  may  be  prepared  in  some  meas- 
ure by  knowledge,  yet  that  true  faith  is  the  immediate  effect  of  a  direct 
influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

As  to  all  the  instances  of  unbelief  we  have  specified,  and  as  to  all 
others  which  may  occur,  ^o  direct  to  Cfod;  pray  against  your  unbelief; 
beseech  him  to  cure  you  of  this  dreadful  infatuation. 

And  let  the  disciples  — let  those  who  are  set  to  guide  souls  to  Christ, 
let  all  the  church  say, "  Lord,  increase  our  faith  !  " 


SERMON  II. 

THE  NATUEE  AND    EFFECT  OF  JUSTIFYING  FAITH. 
BY    THE    RIGHT    HEV.    C.   J.    BLOOMPIELD,    D.  D., 

BISHOP    OF    LONDON. 

"With  the  heart  man  believeth  unto  righteousness  ;  and  with  the  mouth  confession  is  made  unto 
talvalion." — Romans  x.  10. 

The  apostle  declares  that  his  heart's  desire  and  prayer  to  God  for 
Israel  was,  that  they  might  be  saved ;  but  they  utterly  mistook  the  way 
of  salvation,  imagining  it  to  be  by  a  work  which  they  could  themselves 


JUSTIFYING  FAITH.  27 

achieve,  upon  the  foundation  of  their  own  merit,  as  doers  of  the  law. 
They  refused  to  accept  as  a  free  gift  that  which  was  offered  to  them  by 
God  in  Christ,  and  chose  rather  to  be  justified  by  the  deeds  of  the  law 
than  by  him  who  alone  is  holy.  "  Being  ignorant,"  says  the  apostle, 
"  of  God's  righteousness,  and  going  about  to  establish  their  own  right- 
eousness, they  have  not  submitted  themselves  to  the  righteousness  of 
God."  The  righteousness  of  God  is  that  righteousness  Avhich  God  be- 
stows upon  all  believers  in  Christ  —  not  actual  hohness  ;  but,  justify- 
ing them,  they  have  the  privilege  of  being  regarded  as  righteous,  and 
treated  as  such,  for  the  sake  of  the  true,  intrinsic,  substantial  holiness 
of  Christ.  "  For,"  continues  the  apostle,  "  Christ  is  the  end  of  the 
law  for  righteousness  to  every  one  that  believeth." 

Perfect,  unceasing  obedience,  was  the  requirement  of  the  law ;  but 
perfect  obedience  was  impracticable  to  fallen  man ;  therefore  right- 
eousness was  unattainable  by  the  deeds  of  the  law.  But  was  it  attain- 
able by  the  gospel  ?  "  What  saith  it  P  "  —  as  asks  the  apostle.  "  The 
word  is  nigh  thee,  even  in  thy  mouth,  and  in  thy  heart ;  that  is,  the 
word  of  faith  which  we  preach.  That,  if  thou  shalt  confess  with  thy 
mouth  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  shalt  believe  in  thine  heart  that  God  hath 
raised  him  from  the  dead,  thou  shalt  be  saved.  For  with  the  heart 
man  believeth  unto  righteousness  ;  and  with  the  mouth  confession  is 
made  unto  salvation." 

It  appears,  then,  that,  in  order  to  salvation,  two  things  are  indispen- 
sably necessary ;  the  one,  a  plenary  and  heartfelt  faith  in  Jesus  as  a 
crucified  and  glorified  Savior  ;  the  other,  an  open  and  oral  confession 
of  him  in  that  character  before  men,  agreeably  to  his  own  precept  and 
promise,  "  Whosoever  shall  confess  me  before  men,  him  shall  the  Son 
of  man  confess  before  the  angels  of  God."  By  specifying  faith  and 
confession  as  leading  to  certain  results  —  the  one  to  righteousness,  that 
is,  to  being  accounted  righteous  in  the  sight  of  God,  the  other  to  final 
salvation  —  the  apostle  has  cleai'ly  intimated  the  inseparableness,  and, 
in  some  measure,  the  unit}/  of  both.  At  all  events,  he  has  spoken  of 
the  two  as  inseparable ;  and  these  words  may  be  urged  as  an  unan- 
swerable refutation  of  two  perilous  errors,  one  of  which  many  are  found 
to  avow  in  words,  while  the  other  is  by  many  more  exemplified  in  prac- 
tice ;  for  one  sect  pretend  that  religious  feeling  or  principle  is  enough 
without  a  particular  profession  of  it  ;  while  the  other  say  that  profes- 
sion alone  is  all  that  is  required  of  us. 

Let  us  consider  the  nature  of  those  two  great  acts  of  religion  of 
which  the  apostle  speaks  as  being  necessary  to  the  perfection  of  the 
Christian  character  —  belief  and  confession.  The  point  which  claims 
our  attention,  is  — 


28  THE   ENGLISH   PDLPIT. 

I.  That  man  believeth  with  the  heart  unto  righteous- 
ness. 

The  apostle  does  not  say  that  man  believeth  with  the  understanding^ 
which  is  especially  considered  to  be  the  seat  or  instrument  of  belief; 
but  "  man  believeth  with  the  heart  unto  righteousness."  And  to  the 
same  eflfect  he  cautions  the  Hebrew  Christians :  "  Take  heed,  breth- 
ren, lest  there  be  in  any  of  you  an  evil  heart  of  unbelief,  in  departing 
from  the  living  God,"  And  so  it  was  with  the  first  preaching  of  the 
gospel  by  our  blessed  Lord  himself ;  its  reception  or  rejection  was  occa- 
sioned, not  by  the  sagacity,  the  strength  of  reason,  the  power  of  in- 
duction possessed  by  his  hearers,  but  by  the  state  in  which  their  hearts 
were  :  "  But  that  on  good  ground  are  they,  which,  in  an  honest  and 
good  heart,  having  heard  the  word,  keep  it,  and  bring  forth  fruit  with 
patience."  Philip  told  the  pious  Ethiopian  eunuch,  who  was  endea- 
voring in  vain  to  comprehend  the  meaning  of  the  evangelical  prophet, 
"  If  thou  believest  with  all  thine  heart,  thou  mayest  be  baptized." 

Now,  this  is  the  very  expression  by  which  the  Scripture  describes 
that  love  of  God  which  must  be  felt  by  all  faithful  and  teachable 
children.  We  must  believe,  as  we  must  love,  with  all  our  heart.  The 
truth  is,  my  brethren  —  and  it  is  a  truth  which  cannot  be  too  fre- 
quently nor  too  earnestly  impressed  upon  mankind  in  an  age  of  reli- 
gious inquisitiveness  —  the  truth  is,  the  aflfections  have  a  great  deal 
to  do  with  faith.  The  edifice  of  Christian  faith  is  not  one  which  can 
be  built  up  solely  by  arguments  and  inferences  upon  the  basis  of  his- 
torical verity,  but  it  must  be  raised,  and  strengthened,  and  drawn  out 
into  full  and  fair  proportion,  by  devotion,  and  love,  and  thankfulness 
—  by  the  poAverful  master-building  of  the  Spirit.  "Faith,"  the  apos- 
tle says,  "  is  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen."  It  is  the  certain  belief 
of  truths  incapable  of  demonstration  to  our  limited  understandings ; 
the  sure  expectation  of  things  to  come  to  pass  hereafter ;  a  belief  and 
an  expectation  resting  altogether  upon  the  revelation  of  the  promise  of 
God.  Now,  as  things  future  and  invisible  cannot  be  objects  of  sense 
or  knowledge,  properly  so  called,  these  must  be  embraced  by  the  mind 
upon  some  other  prmciple  than  that  upon  which  the  understanding 
builds  its  ordinary  conclusions  —  and  that  principle  is  a  firm  reliance 
upon  the  word  of  God.  "We  judge  him  faithful  who  hath  promised ; 
but  we  can  form  no  correct  judgment  of  his  moral  perfection,  talk  of 
them  as  we  may,  unless  we  feel  an  earnest  desire  to  know  God  as  he 
is ;  and  such  a  desire  is  wholly  incompatible  with  a  set  of  affections 
disordered  by  unholy  wishes  and  habits. 

We  are  assured,  by  our  blessed  Lord  himself,  that  no  man  can  come 
to  him  as  a  Savior  unless  he  be  drawn  of  God  ;  and  God  will  not  draw 


JUSTIFYING  FAITH.  29 

to  him  the  heart  which  delights  in  the  works  of  the  devil  or  the  lusts 
of  the  flesh,  nor  the  heart  which  prides  itself  upon  its  virtues.  The 
man  who  is  strongly  attached  to  sinful  practices,  or  possessed  of  a  high 
opinion  of  his  own  powers  and  merits,  does  not  wish  the  gospel.  In 
the  one  case  it  would  lay  an  irksome  restraint  upon  his  appetites,  and 
in  the  other  it  would  mortify  his  pride.  He  comes  to  the  examination 
of  truth  prejudiced,  and  is,  therefore,  a  partial  judge.  All  his  natural 
passions  are  marshalled  in  array,  to  oppose  the  admission  of  affections 
which  require  a  teachable  mind.  He  rejects  the  gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ  because  he  disbeUeves  it,  but  he  disbelieves  it  because  he  dis- 
likes it ;  and,  wishing  it  not  to  be  true,  he  easily  persuades  himself 
it  is  false.  This  is  an  evil  heart  of  unbelief.  Look  closely  to  the  life 
and  proceedings  of  an  infidel,  and  you  will,  in  most  instances,  discover 
abundant  reason  for  his  unwillingness  to  embrace  that  faith  which  com- 
mands an  imdeviating  course  of  holiness  —  which  commands  humility, 
and  abstinence  from  the  things  of  the  flesh,  and  a  contempt  of  the 
world ;  and  if  you  discover  some  symptoms,  not  only  of  a  mind  uncon- 
vinced by  the  evidences  of  the  gospel,  but  of  a  heart  rebelling  against 
its  precepts,  reject  the  testimony  of  that  man,  pay  no  regard  to  his 
authority  ;  he  is  not  an  unbiassed  nor  a  candid  judge.  "  If  our  gospel 
be  hid,"  said  the  apostle,  "  it  is  hid  to  them  that  are  lost :  in  whom  the 
god  of  this  world  hath  blinded  the  minds  of  them  which  believe  not, 
lest  the  light  of  the  glorious  gospel  of  Christ,  who  is  the  image  of  God, 
should  shine  unto  them." 

But  there  is  a  speculative  assent  to  the  truth  of  Christianity  which, 
although  it  exempts  a  man  from  the  imputation  of  actual  unbelief,  is 
yet  not  a  belief  unto  righteousness,  because  it  is  not  believing  with  the 
heart.  He  may  entertain  no  doubt  of  the  authenticity  of  the  gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ,  nor  of  the  obligatory  nature  of  his  precepts,  and  yet, 
if  his  heart  remain  unengaged  in  the  question  and  work  of  religion, 
there  is  no  practical  application  of  his  knowledge,  in  his  own  particu- 
lar case,  as  one  for  whom  Christ  died.  There  is  no  seeking  for,  and, 
consequently,  no  indwelling  of  the  Spirit ;  and,  therefore,  none  of  the 
fruits  of  the  Spirit  can  be  produced.  This,  then,  is  an  inoperative, 
unfruitful  faith  ;  it  has  no  root  in  the  heart,  and  the  heart  is  every 
thing  in  religion.  I  would  rather  see  a  Christian  zealously  aflccted 
and  engaged  in  the  service  of  the  Lord  with  some  errors  of  doctrine 
—  nay,  even  of  practice,  if  they  do  not  affect  his  moral  standing  — 
than  a  formal  speculative  behever  of  the  gospel,  who  is  correct  in  his 
interpretation  of  Scripture,  but  takes  no  delight  in  experiencing  the 
gospel  promises,  nor  in  exemphfying  its  power  to  distinguish  him  from 
the  world. 


30  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

We  may  believe  with  the  understanding.  Indeed,  if  our  under- 
standing be  not  greatly  warped  by  our  inclinations,  we  must  believe  the 
gospel,  but  it  will  not  be  a  believing  unto  righteousness  —  that  is  to 
say,  it  will  not  be  a  justifying  faith,  such  a  faith  as  will  induce  Almighty 
God  to  deal  with  us  as  though  we  were  justified.  It  can  be  only  when 
we  believe  with  the  heart,  when  our  affections,  and  endeavors,  and 
wishes,  are  engaged  on  the  side  of  Christ — when  we  not  only  under- 
stand, but  feel,  what  he  has  done  for  us  as  our  Savior  —  when  we  not 
only  admit  the  truth  of  what  Scripture  declares  concerning  him,  but 
rejoice  in  his  merit,  and  make  it  the  grand  basis  of  our  hopes,  and 
the  single  principle  of  action  —  that  we  can  be  justified. 

But,  since  "  the  heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things,  and  desperately 
wicked,"  it  becomes  an  inquiry  of  infinite  concernment  to  us  to  deter- 
mine if  our  belief  be  unto  righteousness.  By  its  fruits  we  shall  know 
it.  If  the  fountain-head  of  faith  be  in  the  heart,  its  golden  streams 
will  overflow  in  all  our  words  and  actions.  Do  we  experience  a  sincere 
delight  in  the  work  of  religion  —  in  the  contemplation  of  God's  expe- 
rienced and  covenanted  mercies  ?  —  In  his  worship  ?  —  In  the  study 
of  his  word  ?  —  Are  we  fervent  and  persevering  in  prayer,  not  for  the 
good  things  of  this  world,  but  for  an  increase  of  the  gifts  and  graces 
of  Christianity  ?  —  Do  we  find  soHd  and  enduring  comfort  under  all 
the  trials  of  life  in  the  reflection  that  we  possess  an  interest  in  the 
kingdom  which  Christ  has  purchased  ?  -—  Is  it  a  subject  of  deep  anxiety 
and  regret  that  all  the  thoughts  and  wishes  of  our  hearts  are  not  more 
directly  bent  towards  that  kingdom  ;  and  are  we  continually  laboring 
to  give  them  that  direction? — Is  our  love  of  Christ  a  constraining 
love  —  a  love  which  compels  us  to  love  one  another,  because  God  in 
Christ  hath  loved  us  ? — Are  these  feelings  and  habits  in  the  mind  in  a 
progressive  state  ?  —  Are  we  more  and  more  detached  from  the  world, 
and  rising  above  the  care  and  love  of  those  objects  of  pursuit  which 
once  were  very  delightful  to  us  ?  This,  and  nothing  less  than  this,  in 
its  consequences  and  results,  is  what  St.  Paul  terms  "  believing  with 
the  heart  unto  righteousness  "  —  not  merely  the  assent  of  our  under- 
standing, but  the  consent  of  our  wills.  To  believe  that  Jesus  died  for 
the  sins  of  mankind  without  accepting  him  for  your  own  Savior  —  to 
accept  him  formally  for  your  Savior  without  a  spirit  of  devotedness 
to  his  service  —  this  is  not  a  belief  unto  righteousness.  A  heart 
wounded,  and  contrite,  and  longing  for  the  enjoyment  of  God's  sure 
promises  of  mercy  and  truth  -^  rejoicing  in  these  promises  as  estab- 
lished in  Jesus  Christ  —  a  heart  purified  and  renewed  by  the  Spirit  of 
holiness  —  a  heart  abhorring  sin  and  all  that  leads  to  sin —  a  heart  that 
rejects  and  casts  out  all  opinion  of  its  own  holiness  or  merit  —  a  heart 


JUSTIFYING  FAITH.  31 

that  loves  to  meditate  on  the  things  of  God,  and  that  ascends  to  his 
foot-stool  in  holy  aspirations  —  this  is  a  heart  that  believeth  unto  righte- 
ousness. 
I  come  now  to  the  second  division  of  our  text. 

n.  With  the  mouth  confession  is  made  unto  salvation. 

It  is  manifest  that,  by  confession,  the  apostle  here  means  an  open 
profession  of  faith  in  Christ  crucified  —  a  profession  made  before  men. 
We  are  commanded  to  avoid  all  ostentation  of  piety  or  of  charity ;  to 
pray,  not  that  we  may  be  seen  of  men ;  to  give  alms  so  secretly  that 
our  right  hand  may  not  know  what  our  left  hand  doeth ;  the  sum  of 
which  precepts  is  —  we  are  not  to  perform  any  act  of  religious  duty 
looking  to  the  praise  of  man  for  our  reward.  But,  if  we  are  actuated 
by  a  desire  to  promote  the  glory  of  God  and  the  spiritual  welfare  of 
others,  then  the  public  manifestation  of  piety  is  not  only  innocent,  but 
a  most  important  part  of  our  religious  duty.  In  no  respect  should  we 
live  or  die  for  ourselves,  neither  is  our  religion  to  be  of  such  a  nature  ; 
we  ourselves  are  only  parties  in  it ;  we  must  believe  and  pray  for  the 
confirmation  and  enlargement  of  our  own  comfort,  and  strength,  and 
hope,  but  we  must  do  this  with  a  view  to  the  honor  of  God  and  the 
growth  of  Christian  piety.  We  are  commanded  to  confess  Christ 
before  men  —  to  provoke  one  another  to  good  works  —  to  let  our  light 
shine  before  men,  not  that  they  may  admire  and  applaud  the.  lustre  as 
emanating  from  ourselves,  but  that  they  may  be  guided  by  it  to  the 
First  Source  of  light  and  truth  —  that  they  may  see  our  good  works, 
and  glorify  our  Father  which  is  in  heaven. 

But  how,  it  may  be  asked,  how  is  it  possible  for  a  creature  to  do 
honor  to  his  Creator  ?  How  can  man  glorify  God —  the  eternal,  the  all- 
powerful,  the  all-wise  ?  What  accession  of  honor  can  accrue  to  him  from 
the  united  testimony  of  a  sinful  race,  who  from  the  throne  of  his  glory 
beholds  and  rejoices  in  the  blessed  spirits  of  light,  who  are  for  ever  occu- 
pied in  his  adoration  and  praise  ?  True,  indeed,  it  is,  the  Lord  of  heaven 
and  earth  can  receive  no  accession  to  his  own  intrinsic  glory  from  the  fee- 
ble praises  or  polluted  services  of  an  infirm  and  sinful  race  ;  yet  he  pleads 
with  us,  and  encourages  us,  and  commands  us  to  serve  him  accord- 
ing to  the  imperfect  constitution  of  our  nature  ;  and  surely  the  praises 
of  millions  and  millions  of  reasonable  souls,  the  offerings  of  devoted 
hearts,  the  uplifted  hands  of  the  redeemed  of  the  earth,  the  hallelujahs 
of  countless  myriads  presented  before  the  throne  of  God  and  of  the 
Lamb,  may  seem  not  unworthy  to  please  even  the  ear  of  Omnipotence, 
to  mingle  with  those  sounds  of  melody  in  which  the  Eternal  Spirit 
spake  of  Him  who  was,  and  is,  and  is  to  come. 


82  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

We  need  not  ascend  into  heaven  for  a  reason  for  that  command 
which  directs  us  to  make  open  confession  of  our  faith  before  men. 
With  the  first  believers  it  was  the  test  of  sincerity.  It  was  then  a 
duty  attended  with  danger,  to  be  discharged  in  the  face  of  persecution, 
at  the  risk  of  bonds,  starvation,  and  even  death  itself  To  have  denied 
Christ  from  the  fear  of  these  would  have  been  to  betray  the  cause  of 
God,  and  give  a  triumph  to  sin  and  Satan  ;  whereas  confessing  him,in 
the  teeth  of  persecution,  was  the  sure  evidence  of  faith  rooted  in  the 
heart,  and  certified  to  him  who  made  it,  a  confession  of  him  by  the 
Lord  himself  on  the  day  of  judgment ;  therefore,  says  St.  Paul,  "  With 
the  mouth  confession  is  made  unto  salvation."  To  such  a  trial  of  their 
sincerity  many  pious  servants  of  the  Lord  have  since  been  exposed  in 
the  later  ages  of  the  church,  and,  by  their  constancy  in  the  midst  of 
flames,  have  witnessed  a  good  confession  before  men.  If,  by  the  provi- 
dence of  God  in  the  peculiar  arrangements  of  his  government,  we  are 
protected  from  so  fierce  an  ordeal,  are  we  exempted  also  from  the 
necessity  of  making  an  open  profession  of  our  faith  in  a  crucified 
Savior  ?  There  are  still  enemies  of  Christ  and  of  man's  salvation  in 
whose  teeth  the  profession  must  be  made.  There  is  the  evil  one,  who 
continues  to  oppose  the  progress  of  the  gospel,  and  to  cause  the  holy 
name  of  Jesus  to  be  blasphemed  —  there  is  the  proud  unbeliever,  who 
rejects  the  counsel  of  God,  and  lightly  esteems  the  rock  of  his  salva- 
tion—  there  are  those  false  teachers  who  still  labor  to  poison  the 
fountain  of  living  waters  with  the  impure  streams  of  human  tradition 
—  there  are  those  ungodly  men  who  use  the  liberty  of  the  gospel  for 
a  cloak  of  maliciousness,  and  disclaim  the  eternal  obligation  of  God's 
moral  law  —  there  is  a  vain,  deceitful  world,  which  persuades  us  to 
rejoice  and  repose  in  its  pageantry  and  pleasures,  and  to  hear  its  delu- 
sions, and  to  be  loud  in  its  praises,  while  we  are  careless  about  the 
work  of  salvation,  and  name  the  name  of  Christ  in  Avords  of  formal 
acknowledgment :  —  all  these  are  to  be  confronted,  and  confounded, 
and  put  to  shame,  by  the  public  confession  of  united  believers.  And, 
lastly,  there  are  hard-hearted  and  luke-warm  children  of  this  generation 
who  are  to  be  awakened  and  allured  to  piety  by  the  moving  spectacle 
of  Christians  openly  and  professedly  engaged  in  the  all-important  work 
of  setting  forward  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  salvation  of  sinful  men. 

Now,  it  is  manifest  that  this  notion  of  Christian  confession  implies 
the  duty  of  public  and  common  worship,  a  compliance  with  the  outward 
forms  and  proprieties  of  religion.  It  is  upon  this  principle  that  the 
very  institutions  of  Christianity  which  we  minister  and  reduce  to  use  — 
the  sacraments  which  the  Lord  has  appointed  as  means  of  grace  and 
badges  of  discipleship  —  and,  lastly,  the  duty  of  Christian  communion 


JUSTIFYING   FAITH.  33 

—  are  founded.  The  church  of  Christ  could  never  be  visibly  and  dis- 
tinctly set  apart  from  the  world ;  it  could  never  be,  as  its  founder 
described  it,  a  city  set  on  a  hill  that  cannot  be  hid,  -without  the  public 
and  visible  exercises  of  religion,  the  common  resorting  together,  and 
unanimous  confession  of  the  great  truths  of  the  gospel. 

What  a  powerful  and  convincing  testimony  it  is  to  the  importance  of 
these  truths  !  What  an  awakening,  moving  spectacle  to  the  doubtful, 
or  the  careless,  is  that  of  an  assembled  congregation  of  believers  pro- 
claiming with  one  heart  and  voice  their  allegiance  and  thanksgiving  to 
one  common  God  their  Father  —  their  high  and  holy  trust  in  Him  who 
died  for  their  sins,  and  rose  again  for  their  justification !  "  But,  if  all  pro- 
phesy, and  there  come  in  one  that  beheveth  not,  or  one  unlearned,  he  is 
convinced  of  all,  he  is  judged  of  all ;  and  thus  are  the  secrets  of  his  heart 
made  manifest ;  and  so,  falling  down  on  his  face,  he  will  worship  God, 
and  report  that  God  is  in  you  of  a  truth."  Thus  it  appears  that,  inde- 
pendently of  the  apostle's  command  not  to  forsake  the  assembling  of 
ourselves  together,  and  of  the  apostolic  practice  which  sanctioned  the 
Lord's  day  as  a  Christian  sabbath,  a  day  for  religious  meeting  —  inde- 
pendently of  the  comfort  and  refreshment  which  individual  Christians 
find  in  the  opportunity  of  common  worship  —  the  duty  of  it  is  rendered 
indispensable  by  the  acknowledged  eflBcacy  of  example,  by  which  the 
attention  of  all  men  may  be  turned  to  the  importance  of  religion,  and 
an  opening  made  for  grace  and  conversion,  and  so  for  glorifying  God. 

It  is  chiefly  upon  this  ground  the  apostles  urged  upon  their  converts 
a  punctual  attendance  to  rehgion,  and  a  strict  regard  to  the  decency 
of  their  devotional  exercises  as  a  means  of  common  edification  and  the 
building  up  of  the  household  of  Christ.  And  this  is  a  sufiicient 
answer  to  those  persons  who  pretend  that  they  can  worship  God  as  well 
in  the  privacy  of  the  chamber  as  in  the  solemn  assembhes  of  the 
Christian  Sabbath.  Not  to  dwell  upon  the  argument  that  those  who 
neglect  the  public  worship  of  God  are,  for  the  most  part,  unfrequent 
and  careless  in  their  private  devotions,  we  would  remind  them  that  our 
religious  duty  is  not  merely  a  question  between  God  and  ourselves 
alone  —  that  it  has  a  reference  to  the  salvation  of  others  as  well  as 
our  own,  to  the  advancement  of  God's  glory  and  the  extension  of  his 
dear  Son's  kingdom  upon  earth.  But  the  manifestation  of  our  own 
allegiance  is  an  essential  principle  of  practical  Christianity ;  the 
strength  and  allegiance  of  our  faith  must  be  made  visible  not  only  in 
preserving  us  unblameable,  but  in  putting  forth  an  attractive  power, 
drawing  into  the  sphere  of  our  influence  some  of  those  who  are  floating 
careless  upon  the  surface  of  human  existence  and  bringing  them  within 
the  range  of  spiritual  thanksgiving  and  consolation.  How  powerful 
3 


34  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

an  encouragement  will  it  be  to  every  penitent  person  to  be  exemplary 
in  the  observance  of  all  the  stated  offices  of  piety,  if,  while  he  is 
advancing  in  the  race  before  him,  he  is  urging  others  forward  in  the 
same  course,  confirming  the  doubtful,  awakening  the  careless,  and 
drawing  the  feet  of  the  loiterer  into  paths  of  pleasantness  and  peace  ! 
And  with  what  a  constraining  force  ought  these  motives  to  bind  the 
consciences  of  those  servants  of  God,  whom  his  providence  has  placed 
in  the  higher  walks  of  life,  to  let  their  light  be  seen  of  men  —  I  say 
what  a  motive  to  abstain  from  all  engagements  which  prevent  their 
domestics  from  improving  the  opportunities  of  the  Christian  Sabbath 

—  in  fact,  from  those  engagements  and  amusements  which  are  a  glarmg 
violation  of  the  decencies  of  an  established  rehgion,  an  open  insult  to 
Christian  piety  —  and  to  encourage  and  assist  their  famihes  and  ser- 
vants to  turn  to  the  best  account  that  little  time  which  is  permitted  to 
them,  by  the  habits  of  society,  for  doing  honor  to  God,  and  acquiring 
a  saving  knowledge  of  his  love. 

I  need  not,  after  what  has  been  said,  dwell  upon  the  mercifulness 
of  the  provision  which  our  heavenly  Father  has  made  for  the  wants  of 
his  children  in  appointing  a  Sabbath,  and  instituting  a  church,  and 
ordaining  ministers,  not  merely  to  offer  a  daily  sacrifice  for  his  people, 
like  the  Jewish  priesthood,  but  to  be  their  spiritual  friends,  guides,  and 
comforters,  to  watch  over  their  souls  as  those  who  must  give  account ; 
nor  need  I,  after  what  has  been  said,  endeavor  to  prove  that  it  is  a 
subject  of  pious  thanksgiving  to  any  neighborhood  when  any  enlarged 
opportunities  are  afforded  to  the  inhabitants  of  profiting  by  the  advan- 
tages held  out  to  them  by  a  scriptural  church.  But  let  me  remind 
you  that  he  who  builds  it  up  and  plants  the  watchman  thereon  will 
come  again,  and  expect  the  fruits  of  his  vineyard  in  increased  atten- 
tion to  the  public  duties  of  piety,  in  an  enlarged  acquaintance  with 
the  word  of  God,  a  devout  and  delighted  listening  to  the  ministry  of 
reconciliation,  a  strict  comphance  with  the  gospel  rule  of  holiness  of 
heart,  a  visible  increase  of  Christian  zeal,  and  the  enlargement  of  the 
Redeemer's  fold. 

If  the  sanctuary  which  has  now  been  set  apart  by  solemn  prayer 
from  all  common  and  trivial  uses,  and  consecrated  to  the  noblest  occu- 
pation of  reasonable  creatures,  to  the  common  worship  of  their  Creator 

—  if  it  should  set  open  its  doors  in  vain,  and  if  the  gracious  invitations 
of  your  Savior  are  unanswered,  may  not  the  Lord  appeal  to  common 
sense  and  justice,  and  say,  "  Oh,  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  judge,  I 
pray  you,  betwixt  me  and  my  vineyard  !  What  could  have  been  done 
more  to  my  vineyard  that  I  have  not  done  in  it  ?  Wherefore,  when 
I  looked  that  it  should  brmg  forth  grapes,  brought  it  forth  wild  grapes  ! " 


PRIVILEGES   OF  A    CHRISTIAN.  36 

But,  -wliUe  I  enlarge  upon  the  duty  of  an  open,  an  outward  confession 
of  our  faith  in  Christ,  and  the  consequent  obligation  of  public  worship, 
I  would  caution  you,  in  the  last  place,  against  entertaining  the  belief 
that  the  public  exercises  of  religion  are  religion  itself.  They  are  its 
aids,  its  expression,  its  demonstration,  but  they  are  not  its  escence,  nor 
its  substance.  No  man  can  be  truly  rehgious  who  neglects  them  ;  but 
a  strict  observance  of  them  will  not  supply  the  place,  nor  remedy  the 
defect,  of  a  single  Christian  grace.  Let  me,  then,  in  conclusion,  recur 
to  the  beautiful  words  which  should  occupy  the  first  and  the  last  place 
in  our  exhortations  and  your  reflections  —  the  seat  of  true  religion  is 
the  heart ;  it  is  there  that  faith  is  enshrined  in  humble,  holy  thoughts 
—  it  is  from  thence  that  streams  of  charity  flow  —  it  is  from  thence 
that  prayer  ascends  at  once  to  the  throne  of  the  Eternal  —  it  is  there 
that  holy  sorrow  for  sin,  and  humble  hope,  must  dwell.  And  Oh,  may 
he  who  discerns  its  inmost  thoughts,  and  who  alone  can  purify  and 
establish  it  unblameable  in  holiness  —  may  he  make  it  in  every  one  of 
us  a  fit  habitation  for  himself,  a  decent  and  appropriate  temple  for  his 
Holy  Spirit,  that  we  may  dwell  in  him,  and  he  in  us,  while  we  continue 
in  his  church  upon  earth,  that  our  names  may  be  inscribed  among  "  the 

GENERAL   ASSEMBLY  AND   CHURCH   OF  THE  FIRST-BORN,  WHOSE  NAMES 
ARE  WRITTEN  IN  HEAVEN  !  " 


SERMON    III. 

THE  CHARACTER  AND  PRIVILEGES   OF  A   CHRISTIAN. 


BY    REV.    J.    PARSONS. 


A  Christian."—!  Pet.  iv.  16. 


It  has  been  customary,  my  brethren,  in  all  ages,  and  in  all  nations, 
to  designate  those  systems  which  have  exercised  a  considerable  influ- 
ence over  the  opinions  and  over  the  practice  of  mankind,  by  names 
either  derived  from  the  systems  themselves,  or  the  titles  of  him  by 
whom  they  were  respectively  founded.  Illustrations  of  this  fact  may 
be  abundantly  found  both  in  the  annals  of  ancient  and  modem  philoso- 
phy ;  and  also  in  ancient  andi  modern  religion.  Such  a  mode  of  de- 
signation has  justly  been  considered  to  be  perfectly  admissible,  and  in- 
deed it  is  absolutely  necessary,  for  the  purpose  of  preserving  the  mem- 
ory of  those  great  events  which  have  transpired  both  in  the  social  and 
moral  history  of  mankind. 


36  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

On  this  principle  it  was,  that  when  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God, 
appeared  upon  the  earth,  for  the  purpose  of  announcing  important  doc- 
trines with  regard  to  the  government  of  Jehovah,  and  the  destinies  of 
mankind,  and  gathered  around  him  a  circle  of  followers,  these  followers 
became  designated  by  a  name  derived  from  him  to  whom  thej  render- 
ed their  homage,  and  by  which  title  they  have  been  properly  and  per- 
manently distinguished.  As  their  organization  and  their  augmentation 
in  number  gave  signs  of  the  permanency  and  establishment  of  their 
cause,  they  either  chose  or  received  a  title  which  is  memorable,  appro- 
priate, and  comprehensive  —  a  title  which,  altogether  merging  the  mi- 
nor distinctions  of  rank,  of  origin,  and  of  nation,  proclaimed  the  fact  of 
their  union  around  a  common  Savior,  and  under  a  common  religion. 
That  title  was  the  title  of  Christians. 

It  is  stated  by  the  evangelical  historian  that  "  the  disciples  were  first 
called  Christians  at  Antioch,"  a  Gentile  city,  which,  as  we  are  inform- 
ed in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  received  one  of  the  earliest  messages  of 
the  gospel,  and  had  a  multitude  of  converts  to  the  Lord.  By  that  ap- 
pellation they  are  still  to  be  distinguished,  and  it  must  remain  as  the 
badge  of  augmenting  multitudes  till  the  world  itself  shall  fade  away  and 
be  dissolved.  It  is  of  httle  importance  to  us  to  ascertain  distinctly  and 
properly  what  may  be  comprehended  in  many  of  those  appellations  by 
which  the  children  of  men  are  distinguished  ;  but  it  is  of  vast  impor- 
tance to  every  individual,  that  he  should  understand  perfectly  and  dis- 
tinctly what  is  comprehended  in  the  name  and  character  of  Christian, 
comprising,  as  it  does,  all  that  belongs  to  your  present  welfare,  and 
your  final  and  everlasting  state. 

I  would  observe,  my  brethren,  that  while,  on  the  present  occasion,  it 
is  our  intention  to  present  before  you  what  is  comprehended  in  the  ap- 
pellation of  Christian,  we  shall,  if  spared  to  the  evening  of  this  day 
fortnight,  present  to  you  what  is  comprehended  in  the  character  of  an 
infidel.  Requesting,  however,  your  attention  ■  now  to  the  appellation 
which  is  particularly  before  us,  we  propose, 

I.  To  consider  in  what  consists  the  Christian's  character  and  Chris- 
tian's privileges :  and, 

II.  We  shall  endeavor  to  impress  those  exhortations,  which,  from 
the  view  of  a  Christian's  character  and  a  Christian's  privileges,  may 
justly  and  properly  arise. 

I.  In  what  consists  a  Christian's  character  and  a  Chris- 
tian's PRIVILEGES. 

1st.  With  regard  to  what  constitutes  a  Christian's  character. 

That  there  have  been  not  a  few  misapprehensions  and  perversions 


PRIVILEGES   OF   A    CHRISTIAN.  37 

on  this  subject,  will  doubtless  b^  evident  to  every  one  who  is  at  all  ac- 
quainted with,  and  able  to  judge  of,  the  past  history  of  mankind.  By 
the  avowed  enemies  of  Christianity  many  a  falsehood  and  many  a  per- 
version has  been  uttered ;  and  even  by  those  who  have  been  recogniz- 
ed among  its  professed  friends,  grievously  mistaken  notions  have  been 
entertained  and  expressed,  which  have  been  incalculably  injurious  to 
the  promotion  of  the  cause.  As  it  is  possible  that  not  a  few  may  now 
be  present  whose  notions  on  this  subject  may  be  far  from  proper  and 
correct,  we  shall  endeavor  to  present,  in  a  few  brief  particulars,  all  that 
is  stated  upon  it  in  the  inspired  record,  by  which  alone  our  views  are 
to  be  regulated.     And  here  you  will  observe, 

(1.)  A  Christian  is  one  Yfhofullt/  and  cordially  believes  the  testimo- 
ny that  is  given  concerning  Christ.  The  truth  is  evident,  and  is  pal- 
pable, that  the  claims  of  him  who  is  the  founder  of  our  rehgion  should 
be  accurately  and  properly  estimated,  and  that  whatever  he  is  declar- 
ed to  be,  in  the  institutes  of  religion,  should  be  fully  and  universally 
embraced.  The  question  then  arises  —  what  is  the  precise  nature  and 
import  of  that  testimony  which  is  given  to  us  concerning  the  Founder 
of  Christianity,  the  reception  of  which  at  all  times  is  essential  to  the 
just  estimate  of  his  name  ?  The  import  of  that  testimony  is,  we  be- 
lieve, in  the  first  place,  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  possesses  an  eternal 
and  Divine  existence  in  union  with  the  Almighty  Father  —  that  he  as- 
sumed human  nature  by  virtue  of  his  miraculous  incarnation,  and  in 
which  human  nature  he  Avas  subservient  to  the  Father,  in  compliance 
with  the  everlasting  counsels,  being  in  that  nature  known  as  the  Mes- 
siah, or  Christ,  both  of  which  words  mean  "  the  anointed  one"  —  that 
during  his  existence  on  earth  he  was  emphatically  without  a  stain  of 
moral  pollution,  being  holy,  harmless,  undefiled,  and  separate  from  sin- 
ners —  that  in  that  way  he  became  the  great  teacher  and  exemplar  to 
mankind  —  that  he  submitted  to  an  ignominious  death  on  the  cross  of 
Calvary,  as  a  propitiatory  sacrifice  for  sin,  the  imputation  of  the  merit 
of  which,  through  the  medium  of  faith,  is  essential  to  secure  the  pardon 
and  acceptance  of  man  with  God  —  that  he  rose  again  from  the  dead, 
at  an  appointed  period,  for  the  purposes  of  his  own  glory,  and  to  give 
a  solemn  pledge  and  proof  of  the  resurrection  and  immortality  of  man- 
kind —  that  he  ascended  up  to  heaven  to  his  Father,  and  to  our  Fa- 
ther, to  his  God  and  to  our  God,  there  to  intercede,  and  there  to  reign 
as  Mediator,  sending  down  the  influonces  of  his  Spirit  to  renovate  the 
hearts  of  his  people  —  and  that,  at  the  appointed  period  which  has  been 
determined,  he  shall  come  forth  with  glory  and  with  splendor,  for  the 
purpose  of  raising  and  judging  all  the  human  race,  and  that  then  his 
mediatorial  kingdom  shall  finally  and  for  ever  close.    These  various 


eC  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

laniths,  as  I  have  now  briefly  stated  them,  we  believe  to  be  distinctly 
recorded  in  those  written  statements  of  revelation  which  have  descend- 
ed for  the  guidance  of  our  faith.  They  are  written  there  in  characters 
of  Hght,  which  no  sophistry  or  infidelity  can  ever  obscure  or  quench  in 
final  darkness.  You  will  observe,  that  a  Christian  is  one  who  believes 
all  these  truths,  and  cherishes  them  with  a  warm  devotion  of  heart, 
and  therefore  called  emphatically  by  the  apostle  Paul,  "  One  chosen 
from  the  beginning  to  salvation,  through  sanctification  of  the  Spirit, 
and  behef  of  the  truth."  His  mind,  moreover,  you  will  observe,  be- 
comes properly  the  subject  of  all  those  various  emotions  towards  his 
Master,  and  his  Master's  work,  which,  from  its  nature,it  is  calculated 
to  inspire.  The  divinity  of  Christ  becomes  the  object  of  his  worship  ; 
the  condescension  of  Christ  becomes  the  object  of  his  gratitude  ;  the  ex- 
ample of  Christ  becomes  the  object  of  his  imitation  ;  the  atonement  of 
Christ  becomes  the  object  of  his  trust ;  the  glory  of  Christ  becomes  the 
object  of  his  expectation  ;  the  reign  of  Christ  becomes  the  object  of  his 
joy  ;  and  the  re-appearance  of  Christ  becomes  the  object  of  his  hope. 
Such  is  distinctly  the  nature  of  the  Christian's  faith ;  and  they  who 
feel  not,  and  who  believe  not  this,  whatever  may  be  their  professions 
and  pretensions,  are  to  be  considered,  at  the  very  best,  as  having  but 
the  form  of  religion  without  the  power,  —  as  having  no  part  or  lot  in 
the  matter. 

(2.)  We  observe  that  a  Christian  is  one  T^^ho  permanently  obeys  the 
commandments  of  Christ.  Permanent  obedience,  it  must  always  be 
remembered,  is  to  be  regarded  as  the  proper  sign  of  genuine  and  per- 
sonal faith.  The  great  design  of  Christianity  was  that  of  possessing  a 
perfect  and  absolute  empire  both  over  the  mind  and  over  the  life.  The 
various  principles  contained  in  the  testimony  which  has  been  delivered 
concerning  Christ  can  be  fulfilled  only,  satisfactorily  and  conclusively, 
in  perfect  spiritual  obedience  to  the  commandments  which  the  great 
Redeemer  has  promulged.  That  great  spiritual  fact  was  sufiiciently 
proclaimed  during  the  life-time  of  the  Redeemer  himself.  "  Every 
tree,"  says  he,  "  that  bringeth  not  forth  good  fruit,  is  hewn  down  and 
cast  into  the  fire.  Wherefore,  by  their  fruit  ye  shall  knoAV  them." 
Again,  "  not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me.  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father,  which 
is  in  heaven."  Again,  "  Why  call  ye  me  Lord,  Lord,  and  do  not  the 
things  that  I  say  ?  "  Again,  "  If  any  man  love  me,  he  will  keep  laj 
commandments."  Again,  "  He  that  hath  my  commandments,  and 
keepeth  them,  he  it  is  that  loveth  me."  Again,  "  If  ye  keep  my  com- 
mandments, ye  shall  abide  in  my  love.  Greater  love  hath  no  man 
than  this,  that  a  man  may  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends.     Ye  are  my 


PRIVILEGES    OF   A   CHRISTIAN.  B9 

friends,  if  ye  do  whatsoever  I  command  you."  Now,  it  must  be  very 
clear,  that,  to  understand  and  perfectly  distinguish  all  that  is  present- 
ed in  the  religion  of  the  gospel,  and  to  bring  whatever  is  preceptive  in- 
to regular  and  constant  action,  must  be  considered  as  an  essential  law 
of  the  Christian  caUing.  The  Christian  is  commanded  to  "  crucify  the 
flesh, with  the  affections  and  lusts."  He  is  commanded  to  come  out 
and  separate  himself  from  whatever  is  impure  and  unholy  in  the  con- 
duct and  habits  of  the  world.  He  is  commanded  to  "  bring  forth  the 
fruits  of  righteousness  which  are  by  Jesus  Christ,  to  the  praise  and  glo- 
ry of  God  :  virtue,  knowledge,  temperance,  patience,  godliness,  broth- 
erly kindness,  charity."  All  these  things  are  to  be  in  him  and  abound. 
He  is  commanded  to  set  his  affections  on  things  above,  and  not  on 
things  on  the  earth.  He  is  commanded  to  make  a  public  and  open 
avowal  of  his  attachment  to  the  name  of  the  great  Redeemer,  whom  he 
professes  to  serve,  and  to  dedicate  every  thing  he  possesses  of  wealth, 
of  talent,  or  of  opportunity,  to  the  diffusion  of  the  cause  and  glory  of 
the  Redeemer  in  the  world. 

It  would  be  an  insult  to  the  principles  of  this  great  congregation  to 
state,  at  length,  that  those  only  are  Christians  by  whom  these  various 
commandments  are  obeyed ;  and  I  will  venture  to  assume,  for  the 
honor  of  this  church  and  people,  that  you  will  not  venture  to  deny, 
that  those  who  disobey  these  commandments  have  no  title  to  claim  the 
name  of  the  great  Redeemer  who  delivered  them.  I  know  that,  in 
modem  times  especially,  there  are  multitudes  of  men  who  profess  the 
name  of  Christian,  who  nevertheless  are  open  and  avowed  infidels  in 
•principle,  and  whose  habits  are  hostile  to  what  the  great  Redeemer 
has  exemplified.  And  I  know,  too,  how  grievously  the  reputation  of 
religion  has  suffered  in  the  estimation  of  the  world,  by  the  crimes  and 
pollution  of  votaries,  which  votaries  are  to  be  solemnly  repudiated  and 
renounced,  as  we  do  now  solemnly  repudiate  and  renounce  them,  as 
having  no  more  connection  with  the  worth  and  religion  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  than  is  possessed  by  the  very  spirits  of  the  abyss  them- 
selves. If,  in  your  own  sphere  of  existence,  you  meet  with  those  who 
profess  to  know  God,  and  yet  in  practice  deny  him  —  if  you  meet  those 
persons  that  assume  the  name  of  Christ,  and  yet  refuse  to  imitate  his 
example,  and  obey  his  commandments,  we  have  but  to  pronounce  res- 
pecting them,  that  they  are  the  enemies  of  the  cross  of  Christ ;  "  These 
are  spots  in  your  feasts  of  charity,  when  they  feast  with  you,  feeding 
themselves  without  fear ;  clouds  they  are  without  water,  carried  about 
of  winds;  trees  whose  fruit  withereth,  without  fruit,  twice  dead, 
plucked  up  by  the  roots ;  raging  waves  of  the  sea,  foaming  out  their 


li  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

own  shame  ;  wandering  stars,  to  whom  is  reserved  the  blackuegs  of 
darkness  for  ever." 

(3.)  We  observe,  in  the  last  place,  that  a  Christian  is  one  wlio  re- 
ceives Ids  faith  and  holiness,  and  his  desert  in  them,  hy  the  Spirit  of 
Christ.  The  fact,  my  brethren,  which  we  now  state,  with  regard  to 
the  origin  of  the  Christian  character,  is  one  which  has  received,  in 
modern,  as  well  as  in  ancient  times,  a  very  general  denial.  It  being 
the  judgment  of  men,  especially  among  the  unconverted,  that  the  dis- 
pensation of  the  gospel  is  nothing  more  than  the  dispensation  of  all 
speculative  systems,  so  that  it  does  not  require  any  impulse  but  what 
arises  from  the  intellect  and  aflfection  of  the  human  mind  itself.  We 
must  state,  first,  the  great  evangelical  principle  which  it  is  my  desire, 
on  the  present  occasion,  to  announce  among  you  —  that  the  determi- 
nation and  tendency  of  the  human  will  towards  evil  is  so  strong,  so 
deep,  so  inveterate,  and  so  perfectly  rooted,  that  there  never  would  a 
single  case  occur  of  one  individual  being  brought  to  the  Redeemer, 
behoving  in  the  doctrines  of  Christ,  and  rendering  evangelical  obe- 
dience to  the  commandments  of  Christ,  apart  from  the  influence  of  the 
Spirit  of  God.  Apart  from  that  influence  all  remains  as  the  existence 
of  infidelity  and  sin ;  and,  if  you  see  any  thing  Uke  a  state  of  profes- 
sion which  appears  to  argue  the  possibility  of  the  approach  of  one 
who  is  unconverted  to  the  character  of  one  who  is  a  Christian,  the  or- 
naments which  are  around  him  are  but  like  the  flowers  which  you  have 
sometimes  seen  scattered  around  a  corrupting  corpse.  They  may  veil 
the  terrors  and  deformity  of  death  ;  they  may  shed  a  transient  inter- 
est and  beauty  over  the  scene  before  you,  but  they  can  do  no  more, 
and  they  leave  it  a  corpse  still.  Hear,  my  brethren,  the  record  of 
Scripture  on  this  subject  — "  But  as  many  as  received  him  to  them 
gave  he  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God,  even  to  them  that  believe 
on  his  name ;  which  were  born,  not  of  blood,  nor  of  the  will  of  the 
flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God."  Again,  "  Except  a  man 
be  born  of  water,  and  of  the  Spirit,  he  cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom 
of  God."  Again,  "  No  man  can  come  unto  me,  except  the  Father 
draw  him."  Again,  "  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you  they  are 
spirit,  and  they  are  life  ;  it  is  the  Spirit  that  quickeneth ;  it  is  the 
Spirit  that  giveth  life."  Again,  "  No  man  can  say  that  Jesus  is  Lord, 
but  by  the  Holy  Ghost."  And  again,  "  We  are  saved,  not  by  Avorks 
of  righteousness  which  we  have  done,  but  according  to  his  mercy  he 
saved  us,  by  the  washing  of  regeneration  and  renewing  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  which  he  shed  on  us  abundantly,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Sa- 
vior." Thus,  my  brethren,  we  are  brought  to  a  conclusion,  which  can- 
not be  mistaken,  that  every  thing  which  assists  to  form  and  to  perfect 


PRIVILEGES   OF  A   CHRISTIAN.  41 

a  Christian's  character  is  truly  and  essentially  Divine ;  that  every 
grace  which  flourishes  in  his  heart  is  implanted  there  by  the  power  of 
the  Almighty ;  that  every  principle  which  is  formed  around  his  life, 
and  breathes  a  consecrated  glory,  is  an  emanation  from  heaven.  The 
Alpha  and  O^ega  —  the  beginning  and  the  ending  —  the  first  and  the 
last  of  a  Christian's  character  —  is  the  sovereign  mercy  of  God ;  and 
to  that  mercy,  in  time  and  through  eternity,  he  may  well  ascribe  the 
praise.  We  have  now  presented  to  you  that  which  constitutes  a  Chris- 
tian's character :  let  us  proceed  to  consider, 

2nd.  What  constitutes  a  Christian's  privileges. 

The  connection  of  the  text,  indeed,  you  will  observe,  speaks  of  the 
Bufferings  of  a  Christian  :  —  "If  any  man  suffer  as  a  Christian,  let  him 
not  be  ashamed."  But  let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  the  suffering  of  a 
Christian  does  by  no  means  call  into  question  the  verity,  or  diminish 
the  value,  of  his  privileges ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  by  the  wonderful 
and  mysterious  arrangement  of  Divine  mercy,  these  sufferings  are 
overruled,  so  as  to  become  themselves  privileges  and  blessings.  He  is 
taught  to  glory  in  tribulation  also  ;  and  the  glorious  fact  stands  for 
ever,  that  he  who  is  born  again,  and  who,  by  Divine  grace,  is  brought 
into  fellowship  with  Jesus  Christ,  is  possessed  of  enjoyments,  immuni- 
ties, and  blessings,  so  vast,  that  Divinity  alone  can  comprehend  them, 
and  eternity  alone  can  fulfil  them.  Let  us  now  take  a  brief  survey, 
and  particularly  enumerate  the  privileges  which  belong  to  a  Christian. 
Observe, 

(1.)  K  Q\ms,\h.di,n  is  justified  from  the  guilt  and  condemnation  of 
sin.  It  is  an  ordination  of  heaven  that  the  exercise  of  faith  in  the 
Divine  testimony  —  especially  in  that  department  of  the  Divine  testi- 
mony which  refers  to  the  ability  of  Christ  to  save  us,  and  to  his  pro- 
pitiatory sacrifice  for  sin — shall  be  the  medium  of  imputing  the  merit 
of  Christ  to  the  behever,  so  that  he  who  believes  is  justified,  is  counted 
holy — that  is  the  meaning  of  justification  —  is  counted  holy  before 
God,  no  longer  in  a  state  of  condemnation,  no  longer  in  peril  of  per- 
dition, no  longer  in  peril  at  the  judgment,  but  secure  of  acceptance 
there ;  "  we  are  justified  freely  by  his  grace,  through  the  redemption 
that  is  in  Jesus  Christ :  whom  God  hath  set  forth  to  be  a  propitiation, 
through  faith  in  his  blood,  to  declare  his  righteousness  for  the  remis- 
sion of  sins  that  are  past,  through  the  forbearance  of  God  ;  to  declare, 
I  say,  at  this  time,  his  righteousness  :  that  he  might  be  just,  and  the 
justifier  of  him  which  believeth  in  Jesus."  This  justification  once  be- 
stowed is  irrevocable  and  irreversible,  containing  a  final  and  inalienable 
title  to  the  skies. 

(2.)  A  Qh.v\s,\\2kn  possesses  frieiidship  and  constant  intercourse  mth 


42  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

God.  The  removal  of  the  guilt  and  mental  alienation,  bj  which,  in  a 
state  of  nature,  he  was  characterized,  is  connected  with  the  favor  and 
kindness  of  God,  from  whom  he  was  once  estranged.  Listen,  Christian, 
to  the  statement  of  the  subject,  if  you  think  it  presumption  —  "  We 
have  boldness  to  enter  into  the  holiest  by  the  blood  of  <|esus,  by  a  new 
and  living  way  which  he  hath  consecrated  for  us  through  the  veil  — 
that  is  to  say,  his  flesh."  "  In  him  we  have  boldness,  and  access  with 
confidence,  by  the  faith  of  him."  "  We  have  access  by  one  spirit  unto 
the  Father."  "  We  have  received  the  spirit  of  adoption,  whereby  we 
cry,  Abba,  Father."  The  Christian  is  a  child  of  God,  and  enjoys  all 
the  fulness  of  God,  which  is  comprehended  in  the  protection  of  a 
father's  arm,  the  wisdom  of  a  father's  counsels,  the  constancy  of  a 
father's  care,  and  the  tenderness  of  a  father's  heart. 

(3.)  A  Christian  j^oss^ssgs  the  certainty  of  victory  over  death.  The 
terrors  of  death  arise,  legitimately,  only  from  the  curse  upon  creation, 
and  the  fear  of  the  punishment  of  eternity.  The  curse  and  the  terrors 
of  punishment  in  a  Christian  are  removed ;  and,  therefore,  the  fear  of 
death  is  perfectly  and  entirely  destroyed.  We,  therefore,  may  say, 
in  the  beautiful  language  of  the  apostle  Paul,  in  the  second  chapter  of 
Hebrews,  "  Forasmuch,  then,  as  the  children  are  partakers  of  flesh 
and  blood,  he  also,  himself,  likewise  took  part  of  the  same."  Why  ?  — 
"  that  through  death  he  might  destroy  him  that  had  the  power  of  death 
—  that  is,  the  devil;  and  deliver  them,  who,  through  fear  of  death, 
were,  all  their  life-time,  subject  to  bondage."  We,  therefore,  may 
say,  in  the  language  of  the  same  apostle,  as  he  looked  down  to  the 
coldness  of  the  grave,  and  contemplated  the  terrors  of  the  last  enemy, 
"  0  death,  where  is  thy  sting  ?  0  grave,  where  is  thy  victory  ?  The 
sting  of  death  is  sin ;  and  the  strength  of  sin  is  the  law.  But,  thanks 
be  to  God,  which  givethus  the  victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.'* 
Other  men,  without  exception,  shall  fall  beneath  the  stroke  of  the 
king  of  terrors,  in  hopeless  and  helpless  ruin  ;  but  the  Christian  enters 
into  his  territory  that  he  may  be  the  victim  of  the  conqueror,  but  the 
destroyer  of  the  desolater  ;  and  thus  death  must  have  his  empire,  that 
the  Christian  may  frustrate  and  trample  him  under  his  feet.     And, 

(4.)  The  Christian  has  the  prospect  of  perfect  and  immortal  happi- 
ness and  glory.  For,  why  is  it  that  he  is  born  again  ?  Why  is  it  that 
he  is  brought  to  the  exercise  of  repentance,  and  the  exercise  of  faith  ? 
And  why  is  it  that  he  is  made  to  crucify  the  flesh,  with  the  aflections 
and  lusts,  but  for  the  single  purpose  that  he  may  enter  into  life,  and  be 
saved  ?  "  Blessed  be  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
who,  according  to  His  abundant  mercy,  hath  begotten  us  again  into  a 


PRIVILEGES   OF   A   CHRISTIAN.  43 

lively  hope,  bj  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead,  to  an 
inheritance  incorruptible,  undefiled,  and  that  fadethnot  away." 

In  a  few  words,  my  brethren,  contemplate  the  future  hopes  of  him 
who  is  a  Christian.  At  the  moment  of  his  departure,  the  disembodied 
spirit  enters  into  the  paradise  of  the  Redeemer,  where,  being  absent 
from  the  body,  it  is  present  with  the  Lord,  waiting  for  the  adoption,  to 
wit,  the  redemption  of  the  body.  At  the  appointed  coming  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  with  the  shout  of  the  archangel,  and  the  trump  of 
God,  his  flesh  shall  answer  the  summons  of  the  trumpet  by  rising  from 
the  dust,  not  in  corruption,  but  in  incorruption ;  not  in  dishonor,  but 
in  glory  ;  not  in  weakness,  but  in  power ;  not  a  natural  body,  but  a 
spiritual  body  ;  not  bearing  the  image  of  the  earthly,  but  bearing  the 
image  of  the  heavenly  ;  shaped  into  the  likeness  of  his  Lord.  Stand- 
ing in  his  perfected  nature,  at  the  right  hand  of  his  Judge,  the  Judge 
shall  render  to  him  his  applause  in  the  presence  of  an  assembled  uni- 
verse, and  then  will  ratify  his  entrance  into  bliss  —  that  bliss  which 
comprehends  whatever  the  love  of  God  can  prompt,  whatever  the  wis- 
dom of  God  can  arrange,  whatever  the  power  of  God  can  impart  — 
that  bliss  which  no  sin  can  pollute  —  that  bliss  which  no  sorrow  can 
darken  —  that  bliss  which  no  time  can  impair  —  that  bliss  which  no 
change  can  affect  —  that  bliss  which  no  calamity  can  destroy — that 
bliss  which  remains  like  the  throne  of  God,  firm,  perfect,  unchangeable, 
and  for  ever. 

Here,  then,  my  brethren,  is  presented  to  you  a  brief  enumeration 
of  the  Christiaii's  privileges — and,  my  hearers,  what  think  you  of 
them  ?  Deem  them  not,  we  entreat  you,  the  inventions  of  a  deceiver. 
Deem  them  not,  we  entreat  you,  the  dreams  of  an  enthusiast.  They 
are  the  actual,  palpable  attendants  of  the  course  of  every  pilgrim 
towards  eternity,  clothed  in  the  righteousness  of  Christ,  excepting 
Jesus  himself  be  an  impostor,  and  this,  the  record  of  his  love,  be  a  he. 
No,  my  hearers  !  they  arise  not  like  the  unreal,  empty  vision  that 
mocks  the  parched  and  weary  traveller  of  the  oriental  desert,  setting 
before  him  the  lovely  green  sward,  and  the  shadowy  grove,  and  the 
bright  and  refreshing  stream  ;  and,  as  he  nears  it,  expecting  to  receive 
his  repose,  it  gradually  vanishes  into  air,  leaving  nothing  still  before 
him  but  the  broad  level  of  an  interminable  sand !  No  ;  these  are  liv- 
ing realities  on  which  the  eye  of  faith,  kindled  and  invigorated  by  the 
power  of  Jehovah  himself,  fixes  an  unwavering  gaze  ;  and,  as  we  ad- 
vance, and  advance,  and  still  advance,  the  light  that  shines  upon  them 
becomes  stronger  and  stronger,  and  brighter  and  brighter,  until,  at 
last,  we  bask  in  all  the  sunshine  and  enjoy  all  the  pleasure  they  reveal. 
A  Christian's  privileges !  —  what   is  there  in  nature  to  compare  with 


44  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

them  ?  A  Christian's  privileges  !  —  do  you  not  deem  wealth,  and  hon- 
or, and  fame,  and  power,  and  royalty,  to  be  reputed  but  as  nothing 
compared  with  them  ?  A  Christian's  privileges  ! — do  they  not  give  to 
him  a  surpassing  grandeur,  a  halo  of  Inconceivable  splendor  ?  A  Chris- 
tian's privileges  ! — ought  they  not  to  bestir  a  holy  startling  and  kind- 
ling in  every  bosom,  exciting  a  fervent  and  Intense  ambition  that  re- 
fuses to  be  satisfied  until  we  reach  the  heaven  in  which  they  are  con- 
summated and  crowned  ? 

We  have  now  contemplated  the  two  great  divisions  which  mark  the 
first  part  of  the  subject,  and  now  we  proceed, 

II.    To  SEEK  TO  IMPRESS  THE   EXHORTATIONS    WHICH    OUR    VIEW  OP 

THE  Christian's  character  and  the  Christian's  privileges  ought 

JUSTLY  AND  PROPERLY  TO   INSPIRE. 

My  address  is.  In  the 

First  place,  to  those  hy  whom  this  character  is  sustained. 

My  Christian  brethren,  we  exhort  you,  first,  to  live  diligently  and 
carefully  in  consistency  with  the  religion  you  have  embraced.  I  am 
happy  in  believing  that  multitudes  who  are  now  In  the  presence  of  God 
sustain  the  character,  and  have  a  title  to  those  privileges  we  have  de- 
scribed ;  let  me,  however,  stir  up  your  minds  by  way  of  remembrance. 
Christians  !  the  eyes  of  many  are  upon  you.  "  You  are  a  spectacle  to 
the  world,  and  to  angels,  and  to  men  ! "  In  you  the  honor  of  religion 
is  involved  !  Your  Inconsistencies  would  stain  it ;  your  consistencies 
will  adorn  it !  With  regard  to  your  belief  In  the  principles  of  the  gos- 
pel to  which  we  have  referred,  we  exhort  you,  that  In  them  you  will 
be  firm  and  unwavering ;  that  you  will  not  be  led  away  by  cunningly 
devised  fables,  or  carried  about  with  every  wind  of  doctrine,  by  the 
sleight  of  men  and  cunning  craftiness,  whereby  they  lie  in  wait  to  de- 
ceive ;  but  that  you  will  be  estabhshed  in  the  faith ;  that  you  will  hold 
fast  the  form  of  sound  words ;  that  you  will  be  "  steadfast,  unmovable, 
always  abounding  In  the  work  of  the  Lord."  With  regard  to  your  con- 
formity to  the  principles  of  the  gospel,  we  exhort  you,  that  there  you 
will  be  vigilant,  watchful,  and  exact.  The  state  of  the  times  In  Avhich 
we  live,  the  many  avenues  which  are  constantly  opened  for  conformity 
between  Christians  and  worldlings,  render  necessary  repeated  exhorta- 
tions to  those  that  profess  the  name  of  Christ  to  come  out  and  be  sep- 
arate, to  "  avoid  the  very  appearance  of  evil,"  and  by  "  denying  un- 
godliness and  worldly  lusts,  and  hving  soberly,  righteously,  and  godly, 
in  this  present  world,  adorn  the  doctrine  of  God  your  Savior  in  all 
things."  Be  blameless  and  harmless,  the  sons  of  God,  without  rebuke, 
in  the  midst  of  a  crooked  and  perverse  nation,  among  whom  ye  shine 


PRIVILEGES    OF  A   CKRISTIAN.  45 

as  lights  in  the  world,  holding  forth  the  word  of  life.  Let  your  light, 
my  brethren,  in  this  manner  shine  before  men,  and,  while  your  own 
character  is  exalted,  and  your  own  enjoyments  are  multiplied,  you  will 
confer  honor  on  the  great  cause  to  which  you  are  attached,  and  be- 
come, in  some  measure,  the  instruments  in  the  hands  of  the  Almighty 
in  propelUng  the  march  of  your  beloved  religion  over  the  heathen  and 
unenlightened  countries  of  the  earth,  and  in  constituting  the  religion 
of  the  Bible  the  religion  of  the  world. 

We  exhort  you,  secondly,  that  you  will  make  a  public  glory  of  your 
connexion  with  the  cause  to  which  you  are  attached.  That  you  are  Chris- 
tians, ought  to  be  publicly  known  before  the  world,  and  the  ungodly,  by 
your  courage  and  fortitude  for  the  truth,  should  be  called  to  take  knowl- 
edge that  you  are  numbered  among  those  who  are  chosen,  and  called, 
and  faithful.  For  what  on  earth  is  there  to  render  a  Christian  asham- 
ed of  the  religion  with  which  he  is  connected  ?  There  are  many,  in- 
deed, in  modern  times,  professing  to  be  connected  with  the  name  of 
Christ,  who,  while  they  avow  themselves  to  be  so,  do  it  with  a  timid 
and  fearful  misgiving,  and  there  are  multitudes  more  who  avoid  the 
avowal  altogether,  as  if  to  say  that  they  were  Christians  involved  be- 
fore the  public  an  avowed  disgrace.  As  a  minister  of  the  living  God, 
knowing  not  a  little  of  the  crimes  of  the  church,  knowing  not  a  little  of 
the  needs  of  the  church,  knowing  not  a  little'  of  the  demands  of  the 
church,  I  would  earnestly  and  solemnly  beseech  you  who  have  felt  the 
stirring  of  the  grace  of  God  in  your  hearts,  to  appear  before  the  world 
without  one  compromise  :  and  they  will  perceive  what  you  are  in  your 
characters,  and  in  your  prospects,  and  in  your  hopes.  Come  out  pub- 
licly from  the  world  ;  unite  yourselves  publicly  with  the  people  and  with 
the  servants  of  God.  Let  the  Christian  church  be  your  home  —  let 
the  Christian  church  be  your  atmosphere  — let  the  Christian  church  be 
your  occupation.  "  Be  not  thou,  therefore,  —  I  would  speak  particu- 
larly to  the  young  —  be  not  thou,  therefore,  ashamed  of  the  testimony 
of  the  Lord  ;  "  but  in  every  scene  of  your  mortal  existence  emulate  the 
spirit  of  the  great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  "  God  forbid  that  I  should 
glory,  save  in  the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ  my  Lord  !  " 

These  days  of  peace,  my  brethren,  are  fallen,  mean,  and  degen- 
erate indeed,  if  the  disciples  of  Christ  are  to  be  arrayed  beneath 
the  shadow,  refusing  to  make  known  their  light  and  principles  before 
the  world,  when,  in  what  may  be  called  the  heroic  age  of  the  church, 
martyrs,  amid  storms  and  tempests,  and  when  they  were  brought  to  the 
'rack,  refused  to  bend,  or  compromise,  or  quail.  We  are  told  of  one  — 
and  he  is  but  an  example  — who,  when  brought  before  the  tribunal  of 
judgment  from  whence  he  was  to  receive  the  doom  of  death,  and  ask- 


46  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

ed,  "  What  is  thy  name  ?  "  replied,  "  I  am  a  Christian."  "  What  is 
thine  occupation  ?  "  "  I  am  a  Christian."  "  What  is  thy  native  coun- 
try ?  "  "  I  am  a  Christian."  "  Who  were  thine  ancestors  ?  "  "  I  am 
a  Christian."  And  to  every  question  his  reply  consisted  in  the  words, 
"  I  am  a  Christian."  My  brethren,  emulate  the  spirit  and  imitate  the 
example  !  Rise  superior  alike  to  the  world's  reproach  and  scorn !  Wear 
the  badge  of  your  religion  like  a  diadem  on  your  brow,  openly  and  un- 
concealed !  In  youth,  and  in  age  ;  in  pubhcity,  and  in  retirement ; 
in  health,  and  in  sickness ;  in  life,  and  in  death,  be  this  your  proclama- 
tion, I  am  a  Christian.     We  observe,  in  the 

Second  place,  that  an  address  will  properly  be  directed  to  those  who 
from  tJiis  character  are  yet  estranged. 

There  are,  perhaps,  not  a  few  in  this  congregation,  who,  although 
they  have  possessed  the  means  of  Christian  privilege,  and  have  often 
heard  the  language  of  Christian  exhortation,  are,  nevertheless',  at  this 
very  moment,  without  God,  without  Christ,  and  without  hope  in  the 
world.  Is  there  not  a  conscience,  testifying  that  its  possessor  is  with- 
out a  title  to  the  elements  of  that  character  which  we  have  endeavored 
to  describe  ?  You,  who  have  reason  to  believe  you  are  yet  unconvert- 
ed, allow  me  to  press  upon  you  one  great  consideration,  and  that  is, 
the  vast  importance  of  a  personal  interest  in  that  character  which  we 
have  portrayed.  I  cannot  but  believe  that  the  plain  and  perspicuous 
statement,  as  I  trust  it  has  been,  of  what  pertains  to  the  Christian's 
privileges  and  the  Christian's  character,  is  adapted  to  inspire  something 
like  a  desire  on  your  part  to  be  mingled  with  them.  Perhaps,  you  feel 
as  did  Balaam,  when  he  ascended  the  summit  of  a  rock  and  looked 
down  upon  the  tribes  of  Israel  abiding  in  their  tents,  with  the  taberna- 
cle in  the  midst,  and  the  Shechinah  and  glory  of  the  living  God  hover- 
ing over  the  encampment ;  and,  after  pausing  first,  perhaps,  in  obser- 
vation, then  in  admiration,  exclaimed,  "  How  goodly  are  thy  tents,  0 
Jacob,  and  thy  tabernacles,  0  Israel !  From  the  top  of  the  rocks  I 
see  him,  and  from  the  hills  I  behold  him.  Let  me  die  the  death  of 
the  righteous,  and  let  my  last  end  be  like  his  !  "  Is  not  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  prophet,  the  inspiration  of  every  reasonable  being  who  has 
beheld  a  spiritual  survey  of  the  character  and  privileges  of  the  sons 
and  daughters  of  God. 

To  the  view  of  their  privileges  add  another  consideration,  which  must 
solemnly  be  pressed  upon  you,  and  that  is,  that  without  a  participation 
in  the  character  and  privileges  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of  God,  you 
must  be  finally  and  eternally  miserable.  Yea,  my  hearers,  in  life,  you 
will  be  destitute  of  the  only  influence  which  can  console  and  alleviate 
in  death.    You  will  have  no  ray  of  Ught  beaming  upon  the  darkness  of 


PRIVILEGES   OP   A   CHRISTIAN.  47 

the  grave,  and  no  charm  to  chase  away  the  terrors  that  gather  thick 
around  the  entrance  to  eternity!  In  judgment  yon  m\\  have  no  shield 
to  ward  off  the  certainty  of  justice,  and  prevent  the  sentence  of  con- 
demnation !  In  eternity,  you  will  suffer  the  untold  agqnies  of  the  tor- 
ments of  hell  for  ever !  Do  you  want  my  warrant  ?  "He  that  be- 
lieveth  not  the  Son,  shall  not  see  Ufe  ;  but  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on 
him."  Do  you  want  another  ?  "  He  thatbelieveth  not  shall  be  damn- 
ed." Do  you  want  another  ?  "  The  Lord  Jesus  Christ  shall  be  re- 
vealed from  heaven,  with  his  mighty  angels,  in  flaming  fire,  taking  ven- 
geance on  them  that  know  not  God,  and  that  obey  not  the  gospel  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  shall  be  punished  with  everlasting  destruc- 
tion from  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  and  from  the  glory  of  his  power." 
0,lull  not  yourselves  into  a  deceitful  slumber ;  cry  not  "  peace,  peace," 
when  there  is  no  peace  !  Your  spirits,  even  now,  are  standing  upon 
the  verged  if  you  look  not  to  Christ,  and  believe  not  upon  him,  you 
will  sink  into  the  lowest  hell ! 

My  brethren,  in  the  name  of  Christ,  I  ask  those  who  constitute  this 
congregation,  in  advancing  towards  the  close  of  the  subject  —  whether 
they  refuse  to  be  called  by  the  name  and  to  wear  the  character  of 
Christians  ?  You  have  heard  what  a  Christian  is  —  will  you  be  a 
Christian,  or  will  you  not  ?  Will  you  receive  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Je- 
sus ?  Will  you  rest  upon  the  great  Redeemer,  who  is  able  to  save  un- 
to the  uttermost  all  that  come  unto  God  by  him  ?  My  hearers,  will 
you  render  and  avow  your  allegiance,  that  the  name  of  Christ  shall  be 
your  badge  —  that  his  example  shall  be  your  model  —  that  his  com- 
mandments shall  be  your  rule  —  and  that  his  heaven  shall  be  your 
goal ;  or  will  you  refuse  ?  My  hearers,  the  moment  is  now  arrived, 
when  immortal  spirits  are  challenged  as  to  their  choice  with  regard  to 
their  eternal  welfare.  You,  perhaps,  may  dream  but  little  of  it ;  but 
the  place  where  we  are  gathered  is  filled  with  immortal  spirits,  who  are 
waiting  anxiously  for  your  de<;ision.  There  are  angels  bending  from 
their  seats,  and  resting  on  their  harps,  watching  you  with  intense  solic- 
itude, till  they  hear  the  command  of  God,  that  there  may  be  joy  amongst 
them  over  sinners  who  are  brought  to  repentance.  There  are  demons 
rising  from  the  abyss,  fluttering  to  preserve  the  captives  whom  they 
fear  may  be  disenthralled,  maddened  if  you  escape,  rejoicing  if  the  arch- 
fiend make  the  triumph,  if  you  become  tenfold  more  the  children  of 
hell  than  before.  The  two  orders  of  invisible  beings  are  amongst  us, 
and  what  shall  be  the  result  of  to-night  ?  Will  you  give  joy  to  angels 
or  joy  to  demons  ?  Will  you  kindle  rapture  in  heaven,  or  will  you  kin- 
dle rapture  in  hell  ?  Will  you  burst  the  bands  that  surround  you  asun- 
der, and  rise,  and  stand  emancipated  in  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ 


48  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

makes  his  people  free  ;  or  will  you  clank  your  chains  around  you  like 
maddened  captives,  and  make  yourselves  more  the  children  of  corrup- 
tion than  ever  ?  My  hearers,  in  the  name  of  God,  who  is  greater  than 
angels  and  fiends,  I  demand  your  decision,  and  I  demand  your  decision 
for  Christ !  By  His  agony  and  bloody  sweat ;  by  his  cross  and  pas- 
sion ;  by  his  precious  death  and  burial ;  by  his  glo»ious  resurrection 
and  ascension  ;  by  his  reign  at  the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  and  by 
his  coming  as  the  Judge  of  quick  and  dead,  I  demand  of  every  one  that 
this  night  he  will  enrol  his  name  as  a  Christian  !  Refuse  it  if  you  dare, 
and  answer  for  it  before  the  tribunal  of  God !  For  myself,  I  take  the 
vow  once  more,  and  I  trust  I  shall  be  followed,  even  by  thousands,  who 
are  in  the  presence  of  God,  "  I  am  not  ashamed  of  the  gospel  of  Christ; 
for  it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  believeth." 
"  I  am  determined  to  know  nothing  among  you  save  Jesus  Christ,  and 
him  crucified."  "  Whether  I  live,  I  will  live  unto  the  Lord  ;  or  wheth- 
er I  die,  I  will  die  unto  the  Lord  ;  whether  I  live,  therefore,  or  die,  I 
am  the  Lord's.  For,  to  this  end,  Christ  both  died  and  rose,  and  re- 
vived, that  he  might  be  Lord  both  of  the  dead  and  of  the  living." 

Come,  ye  sons  and  daughters  of  men,  let  us  thus  sustain  the  Christ- 
ian's character,  then  shall  Ave  enjoy  the  Christian's  privileges  ;  and,  as  we 
possess  the  Christian's  privileges,  we  shall  rise  to  the  Christian's  heav- 
en !  Shall  we  meet  there  ?  The  day  will  declare  it !  Sinners,  your 
blood  be  upon  your  own  heads  !  Amen. 


SERMON  IV. 

THE  KNOWLEDGE   OF   CHRIST  CRUCIFIED. 
BY  REV.   F.    J.   J0B80N, 

"  I  determined  not  to  know  any  thing  among  yon,  save  Jesus  Christ  and  Him  crucified." 

1  CoBinTHiARS,  ii.  2. 

Man,  by  his  intellectual  constitution,  is  capable  of  acquiring  and 
possessing  knowledge  ;  and  in  this  he  stands  distinguished  from  all  oth- 
er beings  in  the  visible  universe.  The  earth  on  which  you  tread,  cov- 
ered as  it  is  with  beauty  and  bloom,  knows  not  of  its  own  existence  ;  it 
is  totally  unconscious  of  itself.  The  sun,  that  shines  so  gloriously, 
knows  not  of  his  own  splendor ;  he  is  totally  unconscious  of  the  light 
and  life  he  throws  on  all  around.     The  air,  that  sustains  all  animal  and 


KNOWLEDGE   OF   CHRIST   CRUCIFIED.  49 

vegetable  life,  knows  not  of  its  sustaining  and  refreshing  qualities. 
Birds,  that  wing  their  adventurous  way  through  the  air  ;  beasts,  that 
stalk  upon  the  surface  of  the  earth  ;  fishes,  that  pass  down  to  depths 
unfathomed  —  are  totally  incapable  of  contemplating  the  scenes  by 
which  they  are  surrounded.  But  man,  the  last  and  brightest  fruit  of 
eternal  wisdom  —  max,  the  last  production  of  Jehovah  in  his  six  days' 
labor,  can  contemplate  the  glorious  scenes  by  which  he  is  surrounded. 
The  brute  creation  seem  to  think  of  nothing  but  what  is  urged  upon 
them  by  present  inclinations  ;  the  past  is  a  blank  to  them,  the  future 
all  in  darkness.  But  man  can  review  the  past,  contemplate  the  present, 
and  look  onward  to  the  future.  Nay,  you  know  not  where  to  put  a 
limit  to  the  powers  of  the  mind  of  man.  You  may  stride  over  the  sur- 
face of  this  earth,  and  speak  with  certainty  of  its  dimensions  ;  you  may 
measure  the  distance  of  the  most  far-out  planet,  and,  after  you  have 
ascertained  its  distance,  you  may  mark  out  its  surface,  and  place  a 
boundary  line  beyond  it ;  but  where  will  you  put  a  limit  to  the  powers 
of  the  mind  of  man  ?  It  is  ever  moving  onwards.  It  goes  on  link  by 
link  in  the  chain  of  understanding  ;  and  you  know  not  where  to  find 
an  end  of  that  chain,  but  at  the  footsteps  of  the  Eternal  Throne. 

But  not  only  is  there  a  power  in  the  mind  of  man  to  acquire  and  re- 
tain knowledge,  but  there  is  a  love  for  knowledge,  implanted  by  the 
Divine  hand  within  his  breast  for  important  purposes.  The  mind  of 
man  has  as  great  a  dislike  to  ignorance  as  the  eye  has  to  darkness,  or 
the  Umbs  to  confinement.  It  loves  to  look  out  on  the  broad  light  of  ^ 
truth  ;  it  loves  to  range  in  the  freedom  of  its  faculties. 

But  various  are  the  opinions  of  men,  as  to  what  constitutes  the  most 
valuable  kind  of  knowledge.  One  man  says,  that  the  knowledge  of 
languages  is  the  most  valuable  of  all  knowledge,  and  he  sets  himself 
down  to  study  the  speech  of  various  nations  ;  and  thus  he  seeks  repu- 
tation among  men.  Another  man  says,  that  the  expression  of  senti- 
ment in  poetic  numbers  is  the  most  exalted  employment  of  the  mind  ; 
and  he,  as  a  poet,  seeks  reputation  among  his  fellow  beings.  Another 
man  says,  that  to  understand  well  the  connection  between  cause  and 
efiect,  or  to  be  a  natural  philosopher,  and  be  able  to  place  every  creat- 
ed object  in  its  proper  situation  —  from  the  gigantic  elephant  that  stalks 
the  surface  of  the  earth,  down  to  the  smallest  insect  that  dances  in  the 
sun-beam  —  is  to  be  a  wise  man  ;  and,  as  a  natural  philosopher,  he  seeks 
reputation  among  his  fellow-creatures.  Another,  perhaps,  takes  off  the 
crust  of  the  earth,  on  which  you  tread,  and  looks  down  into  it  to  see  how 
it  is  built  and  composed  ;  and,  as  a  geologist,  he  seeks  reputation  among 
men.  Another,  makes  the  earth,  on  which  you  walk,  an  observatory,  and 

gazes  at  the  stars  ;  and  by  his  progress  in  what  is  called  the  celestial  sci- 
4 


50  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

euce,  he  seeks  reputation  in  the  world.  My  friends,  such  knowledge  may 
be  valuable,  but  it  is  not  the  most  valuable  ;  such  knowledge  may  be 
important,  but  it  is  not  the  most  important.  Man  is  a  guilty  sinner ; 
and  in  this  world  his  time  should  be  occupied  in  seeking  reconciUation 
■with  his  God.  By  Christ  crucified  a  way  is  opened,  whereby  guilty 
man  may  be  reconciled  to  God.  Then,  I  say,  that  man  is  the  wise 
man,  who  goes  to  the  cross  of  Christ  to  study  there  the  great  science 
of  human  redemption.  Let  a  man  be  what  he  may  —  astronomer,  ge- 
ologist, poet,  natural  philosopher,  or  whatever  else,  he  must  yield  the 
palm  to  the  Christian  student,  who  goes  to  the  cross  of  Chi'ist  to  study 
there  the  great  science  of  human  salvation.  Do  you  wonder,  then,  to 
hear  the  apostle  Paul  —  the  noble,  talented,  learned  Paul  —  avow  a 
determination  so  great,  as  that  which  is  expressed  in  the  words  of  the 
text  ?  Do  you  wonder  to  hear  him  say,  amidst  the  philosophers  and 
sages  of  Greece,  "  I  am  determined  not  to  know  anything  among  you, 
save  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified."  Noble  Paul !  valiant  Paul ! 
He  had  a  right  to  say  so ;  he  knew  that  Christ  crucified  was  everything 
to  him  as  a  guilty  sinner.  You  cannot  be  surprised  to  hear  him  say, 
"  I  am  determined  not  to  know  any  thing  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him 
crucified." 

The  persons,  to  whom  St.  Paul  first  avowed  his  determination,  were 
persons  that  were  given  to  the  study  of  science,  as  it  was  taught  by 
their  philosophers,  who  were  well  skilled  in  all  the  tricks  of  human  ora- 
tory, Paul  went  among  them,  and  he  declared  simply  and  plainly  the 
death  of  Christ,  and  the  way  of  salvation  for  guilty  man  by  the  death 
of  Christ ;  and  they  frowned  upon  Paul ;  they  looked  upon  it  as  bad 
taste  in  Paul,  to  go  among  the  philosophers  of  Greece,  and  speak  of 
the  death  of  Christ  as  the  way  of  deliverance  for  guilty  beings.  But 
Paul  challenged  them  to  point  to  effects  produced  by  their  preaching, 
so  great  as  those  which  had  been  produced  by  the  simple  story  of  the 
cross.  "  AVhere,"  says  he,  "  is  the  wise  ?  where  is  the  scribe  ?  where 
is  the  disputer  of  this  world  ?  hath  not  God  made  foohsh  the  wisdom 
of  this  world  ?  "  And  then  he  goes  on  to  show  how  the  effects,  which 
had  been  produced  among  the  Corinthians,  had  been  caused  —  that  it 
was  not  done  by  any  tricks  of  human  oratory,  or  by  the  gaudy  addresses 
of  an  eloquent  man.  No ;  he  reminds  them  of  the  plain  and  simple 
way  in  which  he  went  amongst  them^  and  proclaimed  the  cross  of  Je- 
sus Christ ;  he  says,  "  And  I,  brethren,  when  I  came  unto  you,  came 
not  with  excellency  of  speech  or  of  wisdom,  declaring  unto  you  the  tes- 
timony of  God ;  for  I  determined  not  to  know  any  thing  among  you, 
save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  crucified." 

First,  then,  we  shall  notice  the  grand  subject,  which  so  exclusively 


KNOWLEDGE   OF   CHRIST   CRUCIFIED.  61 

engaged  the  apostle's  attention  —  Jesus  Christ,  the  Savior  of  man  ;  in 
the  second  place,  we  shall  bring  forward  reasons  to  justify  a  determina- 
tion so  great,  as  that  which  the  apostle  avows  in  my  text,  so  that  he 
would  "  know  nothing  among  them,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  cruci- 
fied." 

I.  First,  then,  we  are  to  notice  the  grand  subject,  which  so  ex- 
clusively engaged  the  apostle's  attention. 

It  was  as  much  as  if  he  had  said,  "  I  am  determined  to  think  of 
nothing  for  myself,  I  am  determined  to  teach  nothing  to  you,  but  Je- 
sus Christ,  and  him  crucified;  this  shall  be  the  point,  the  centre,  to 
which  all  the  lines  of  my  ministry  shall  be  drawn  —  Jesus  Christ,  and 
him  crucified." 

I  suppose,  my  friends,  it  is  not  necessary  for  me  to  take  up  the  time 
this  morning,  in  explaining  to  you  the  meaning  of  these  words.  You 
arc  all  aware,  that  the  word  Jesus  signifies  a  Savior.  The  first  who 
bore  that  name,  was  the  son  of  Nun,  of  the  tribe  of  Ephraim  —  the  suc- 
cessor of  Moses ;  for  Joshua,  by  proper  interpretation,  is  the  same 
name  as  Jesus,  and  that  name  was  given  unto  Joshua  as  a  proof  that 
God  would  fulfil  his  promise  unto  his  people  ;  that  he  would  raise  up 
a  leader,  who  should  direct  them  through  the  wilderness,  and  bring 
them  safely  into  a  land  "  flowing  with  milk  and  with  honey."  And 
you  know,  that  the  name  given  to  the  Savior  —  that  of  Jesus  —  was 
not  given  to  him  merely  as  a  proper  name,  a  name  by  which  he  might 
be  distinguished  among  the  sons  of  men  —  not  given  to  him,  as  the 
name  of  John  was  given  at  his  circumcision.  No  ;  for  when  the  angel 
appeared  unto  Joseph,  and  gave  the  name  o?  Jesus,  he  gave  along  with 
it  the  etymology  or  meaning  of  the  name  ;  he  said,  "  Thou  shalt  call 
his  name  Jesus,  for  he  shall  save  his  people  from  their  sins."  The 
word  Jesus,  then,  signifies  a  Savior. 

We  now  come  to  that  title  which  is  generally  annexed  to  that  of  Je- 
sus —  that  of  Christ,  which  signifies  the  anointed.  Under  the  old  dis- 
pensation, kings  and  priests  were  anointed  —  set  apart  for  their  office. 
You  remember,  that  David  was  anointed  to  be  king  by  Samuel,  and 
Aaron  and  his  sons  were  anointed  to  the  priesthood.  Oil  was  poured 
upon  their  heads.  Nor  was  this  a  mere  formal  or  unmeaning  ceremo- 
ny ;  but,  connected  with  it,  was  the  bestowment  of  fit  qualifications  for 
their  office.  Until  David  had  been  anointed  by  Samuel,  he  was  a  raw 
shepherd,  quite  unfit  to  reign  over  Israel ;  but  when  Samuel  had  anoint- 
ed him,  the  Spirit  of  God  came  upon  him,  and  prepared  him  for  the 
office.  Now  Christ  was  anointed.  I  do  not  mean  that  it  was  mere 
oil  —  a  mere  drug  pressed  out  of  vegetable  matter  —  that  was  poured 


52  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

upon  him.  No  ;  it  -was  the  unction  of  the  Holy  One.  You  remember, 
that  at  his  baptism  the  Holy  Ghost  descended  upon  him,  and  a  voice 
from  heaven  Tvas  heard,  "  This  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  ■vyell 
pleased ; "  and  then  he  went  into  the  temple,  and  he  cried,  "  The  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he  hath  anoiilted  me  to  preach  the 
gospel  to  the  poor ;  he  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the  broken-hearted,  to 
preach  deliverance  to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind, 
to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised." 

But,  my  friends,  it  is  not  upon  the  name  of  Jesus  that  we  rest  our 
hopes  for  salvation,  nor  is  it  upon  the  anointing  of  the  Savior  that  we 
rest  our  hopes  for  salvation ;  no,  it  was  not  the  anointing  of  Christ  nor 
the  name  of  Christ  upon  which  the  apostle  Paul  determined  to  dwell — • 
but  Jesus  Christ  a-ucified.  And  that  is  every  thing  to  you  and  to  me, 
as  guilty  sinners.  That  is  the  foundation  of  all  your  hopes  ;  that  is 
the  ground  of  all  your  expectations  ;  that  is  the  key-stone  of  the  whole 
arch  of  Christianity.  If  you  take  that  away,  there  is  nothing  for  us 
to  hope  for,  nothing  left  on  which  we  can  ground  our  expectations  of 
eternal  salvation.  Jesus  Christ  crucified  is  every  thing  to  you  and  to 
me. 

Let  us  attend  to  this  mighty  subject  —  this  subject,  which,  on  ac- 
count of  its  magnificence,  has  been  justly  called  "  the  wisdom  of  God  " 
—  this  subject,  which,  on  account  of  its  grandeur,  excites  the  admira- 
tion of  the  loftiest  intelligences.  You  never  find,  in  this  book,  that  an- 
gels are  walking  the  surface  of  this  earth  to  inquire  into  the  connec- 
tion between  cause  and  effect  in  its  transactions  ;  but  you  do  find  them 
Christian  students  —  the  angels  are  represented  by  Peter  as  desiring 
to  fathom  the  mysteries  of  redemption.  This  is  the  subject  which  will 
engage  our  attention  throughout  all  eternity,  if  you  and  I  shall  get  to 
heaven,  and  furnish  us  with  songs  long  as  eternity  shall  endure. 

Let  us,  then,  look  at  Jesus  Christ  crucified  —  Jesus  Christ  your 
Savior  —  Jesus  Christ  my  Savior  —  Jesus  Christ  crucified  for  the  sins 
of  the  whole  world  —  not  Jesus  Christ,  a  good  man  going  up  and  down 
this  world,  performing  his  heavenly  Master's  will — not  Jesus  Christ, 
a  great  prophet  commissioned  by  God  to  convey  some  important  infor- 
mation to  the  inhabitants  of  this  world.  No  ;  to  view  him  as  a  good 
man,  his  greatest  enemies  are  willing  —  to  view  him  as  a  great  prophet, 
his  greatest  enemies  are  wiUing.  My  friends,  there  is  a  system  in  our 
day,  which  seeks  to  pluck  the  crown  of  underived  glory  from  the  head 
of  the  Savior,  to  wrest  the  sceptre  from  his  hand,  to  take  the  robe  of 
royalty  from  his  shoulders,  and  to  reduce  him  to  the  level  of  a  man. 
There  are  some  who  bow  to  Christ  as  a  good  man  and  a  great  prophet, 
but  who  scorn  to  look  upon  him  as  the  co-equal  Son  of  God.     No  won- 


KNOWLEDGE   OF   CHRIST   CRUCIFIED.  63 

der  that  the  doctrine  should  be  attacked,  and  maliciously  attacked  ; 
but  that  men,  who  pretend  to  bow  to  the  authority  of  this  book,  should 
deny  it  —  is  indeed  inconsistent ;  and  we  do  not  believe  the  atheist  is 
a  more  inconsistent  man,  than  men  who  pretend  to  revere  the  author- 
ity of  the  Bible,  and  deny  the  Divinity  of  Christ. 

We  will  just  look  at  this  point ;  for  you  know  that  the  Divinity  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  every  thing  to  you  and  to  me.  I  will  just  refer  you  to 
two  or  three  arguments  founded  on  the  word  of  God. 

I  will  first  refer  you  to  an  interesting  conversation,  that  took  place 
between  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Jews,  in  the  days  of  his  flesh.  They 
said,  "  Thou  art  not  yet  fifty  years  old,  and  hast  thou  seen  Abraham  ? " 
Jesus  said  unto  them,  "  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  before  Abraham 
was,  I  am  "  —  thus  claiming  for  himself  that  name,  which  signifies  un- 
derived  or  unborrowed  existence  —  that  name,  by  which  Jehovah  re- 
vealed himself  when  he  sent  Moses  forth  with  a  message  to  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel,  for  he  said,  "  I  am  hath  sent  thee  unto  them  ;  "  this 
name  Christ  claimed  himself.  I  next  refer  you  to  the  prayer  of  Christ 
—  that  prayer,  which  he  offered  unto  the  Father  before  he  ascended 
up  on  high ;  "  Father,"  says  he,  "  glorify  thou  me  with  thine  own  self, 
with  the  glory  which  I  had  with  thee  before  the  world  was."  Now 
what  mortal  is  there  that  dare  stand  up  and  pray  in  this  way  ?  What 
man  is  there  in  this  assembly  —  good  man  or  good  woman,  as  he  or  she 
may  be  —  that  dare  stand  up,  and  say,  "  Father,  glorify  thou  me  with 
thine  own  selfj  with  the  glory  which  I  had  with  thee  before  the  world 


was 


?" 


Not  only  are  the  names  of  God  ascribed  to  Christ,  but  the  work  of 
God,  you  will  find  in  this  book,  is  ascribed  to  Christ.  Perhaps  you 
will  remember  the  fine  annunciation  with  which  the  apostle  John  opens 
his  gospel.  He  says,  "  In  the  beginning  was  the  word,  and  the  word 
was  with  God,  and  the  word  was  God  ;  the  same  was  in  the  beginning 
with  God  ;  all  things  were  made  by  him,  and  without  him  was  not  any 
thing  made  that  was  made."  So  that  whatever  the  Divine  Father  and 
the  Divine  Spirit  have  been  engaged  in,  the  Divine  Son  has  also  been 
engaged  in.  The  Divine  Father  and  the  Divine  Spirit  were  employed 
in  bringing  into  existence  this  world  of  ours,  and  all  the  glorious  worlds 
that  roll  around  us  throughout  all  space  ;  but  whatever  the  Divine  Father 
and  the  Divine  Spirit  have  been  employed  in,  the  Divine  Son  has  also 
been  employed  in.  The  Divine  Father  and  the  Divine  Spirit  have 
been  engaged,  throughout  eternity,  in  bringing  into  existence  beings  of 
intelligence  and  beings  of  responsibility  ;  but  whatever  the  Divine  Fa- 
ther and  the  Divine  Spirit  have  been  engaged  in,  the  Divine  Son  has 
been  engaged  in  also.     "  By  him  were  all  things  created,  that  are  in 


54  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

heaven,  and  that  are  in  earth,  visible  and  invisible,  whether  they  be 
thrones,  or  dominions,  or  principalities,  or  powers  ;  and  he  was  before 
all  things,  and  by  him  all  things  consist." 

You  remember,  too,  that  when  Christ  was  upon  the  earth,  He  re- 
ceived worship.  In  that  hour  when  the  doubts  of  Thomas  were  dis- 
persed, he  addressed  the  Savior  —  "My  Lord,"  said  he,  "  and  my 
God  ;  "  and  Christ  did  not  reprove  him  for  that  conduct.  And  you 
will  find,  that  many  times  the  Savior  took  worship  to  himself.  Now 
the  loftiest  created  intelligence  is  not  allowed  to  take  worship.  You 
remember  that,  when  John  would  have  fallen  down  to  worship  before 
the  feet  of  an  angel,  he  said,  "  See  thou  do  it  not,  for  I  am  thy  fellow- 
servant  ;  worship  God."  But  Christ  received  worship,  why  ?  He 
was  God,  and  he  knew  that  it  was  his  right. 

If  you  search  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  you  will  find  proofs  of 
the  Divinity  of  our  Lord  and  Savior  Jesus  Christ.  Isaiah  calls  him, 
"  The  mighty  God,  the  everlasting  Father ;  "  or,  as  it  might  be  read, 
"  the  Father  of  eternity."  Jeremiah  calls  him  "  the  Lord  "  (or,  as 
it  might  be  read,  "  Jehovah  ")  "  our  righteousness." 

You  remember,  too,  the  attitude  in  which  Christ  stood,  and  the  tone 
of  voice  with  which  he  spoke,  when  he  performed  miracles.  When 
Christ  performed  miracles,  he  did  not  act  as  Moses  or  Elijah  did  when 
they  performed  miracles,  who  prayed  that  God  would  help  them  and 
be  with  them,  before  they  wrought  the  miracle.  No  ;  he  spoke  with 
the  voice  of  one  having  authority ;  he  spoke,  and  the  winds  ceased, 
and  the  waves  were  still,  hushed  as  a  child  in  its  cradle  by  its  mother ; 
it  was  the  God  of  nature  that  spoke,  and  therefore  all  was  quiet.  But 
there  is  one  part  of  our  Lord's  conduct,  which,  to  my  mind,  proves 
more  than  volumes  in  regard  to  his  Divinity  ;  and  that  is  his  conduct 
to  his  disciples,  when  he  gave  them  their  commission  before  he 
ascended  up  on  high.  "  He  breathed  on  them,  and  said  unto  them, 
Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost."  Now  I  ask,  what  man  could  breathe 
the  Holy  Ghost,  the  essence  of  God  ?  what  human  being  could  breathe 
the  Holy  Ghost  ? 

Here,  then,  the  foundation  is  good,  Christ  is  God :  and  if  he  be 
God,  then  I  can  rest  upon  him,  because  I  know  he  made  atonement 
for  the  sins  of  the  world.  But  if  you  take  away  the  Divinity  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  there  is  nothing  left  for  me  to  rest  upon.  Why, 
suppose  I  were  to  take  the  best  man  in  all  this  book,  and  set  him  be- 
fore you,  and  dress  him  up  in  all  his  virtues,  and  say,  "  By  this  man 
is  preached  unto  you  salvation  ; "  which  of  you  could  rest  your  salva- 
tion upon  him  ?  No ;  Milton,  in  his  beautiful  book,  over  which  we 
hang  with  delight,  hour  after  hour,  represents  God  as  looking  round 


KNOWLEDGE   OP   CHRIST   CRUCIFIED.  55 

among  the  angels  of  heaven,  and  asking  which  of  them  would  go  and 
deliver  man.  That  may  do  foi-  Milton,  it  may  do  for  poetry ;  but  it 
will  not  do  for  our  soul's  foundation.  The  brightest  archangel  that 
burns  before  the  eternal  throne,  would  not  have  done  to  make  atone- 
ment for  the  sins  of  man.  Infinite  justice  must  be  satisfied ;  an 
infinite  nature  must  effect  that  work ;  in  the  whole  round  of  beings, 
there  is  but  one  that  is  infinite ;  and  unless  Christ  had  undertaken  our 
cause,  you  and  I  must  have  been  lost  for  ever.  But,  blessed  be  his 
name  !  He  undertook  our  cause  ;  he  came  down  into  this  world,  and 
suffered,  and  bled  for  you  and  for  me.  With  the  might  of  his  Divinity, 
he  entered  our  humanity;  and,  by  the  one  ofiering  of  himself,  he 
made  a  full,  perfect,  and  sufiBcient  atonement  for  the  sins  of  the  world. 
Human  nature  was  necessary,  in  order  to  make  that  atoning  sacrifice ; 
and  I  know  it  is  a  mystery,  how  God  and  man  could  be  united  in  one 
nature ;  but  why  should  I  reject  a  truth  that  is  revealed,  because  it  is 
a  mystery  ?  I  cannot  comprehend  myself;  I  know  that  I  can  turn  to 
the  right,  or  turn  to  the  left,  or  stretch  out  my  arm,  by  the  mere  exer- 
tion of  my  will —  but  I  cannot  understand  it.  And  if  I  cannot  under- 
stand myself,  why  should  I  reject  this  doctrine  because  I  cannot 
comprehend  it.  My  friends,  there  are  heights  in  religion,  as  there  are 
mountains  in  nature,  which  the  foot  of  man  never  trod ;  and  if  the 
eagle,  in  his  magnificent  flight,  shall  bring  down  from  those  mountains 
the  leaves  of  a  tree  which  I  have  never  seen,  shall  I  doubt  the  exist- 
ence of  the  tree,  merely  because  I  have  not  ascended  to  the  spot  where 
it  grows  ?  And  since  I  cannot  comprehend  how  God  and  man  can  be 
united  in  one  nature,  I  will  throw  myself  before  the  feet  of  Christ,  and 
I  will  worship  him,  and  cry  to  every  sinner  that  shall  come  within  the 
sound  of  my  voice,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,  that  taketh  away  the 
sin  of  the  world."  Christ  has  undertaken  your  cause  and  my  cause. 
He  suffered  in  our  stead. 

I  have  not  time  this  morning  to  dwell  upon  the  sufferings  of  the 
Savior.  And  if  I  had,  I  would  not  dwell  upon  his  corporeal  sufier- 
ings  ;  I  Avould  not  speak  of  those  things  which  are  being  dwelt  upon 
for  hours,  and  set  forth  as  if  they  were  the  most  important ;  I  would 
not  speak  of  the  insults  in  the  judgment  hall ;  I  would  not  speak  of 
him  hurried  through  the  streets,  and  of  the  people  proclaiming  all  the 
way  that  they  had  found  out  the  cheat  and  the  hypocrite,  and  that  his 
OTvn  confession  convicted  him  of  blasphemy,  and  condemned  him  to 
die  ;  I  would  not  speak  of  their  plaiting  a  crown  of  thorns,  and  put- 
ting it  round  his  head,  and  with  their  fists  striking  the  sharp  edges 
into  his  temples  ;  I  would  not  tell  how  with  their  whips  they  smote 
his  back,  till  it  became  one  bloody  wound ;  I  would  not  speak  of  his 


56  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

being  nailed  to  the  cross,  his  body  pulled  to  its  full  length  and  breadth, 
and  pierced  by  the  nails  that  fastened  it ;  I  would  not  speak  of  the 
multitude  that  -wagged  their  heads  in  scorn,  and  said,  "  He  saved 
others,  himself  he  cannot  save."  No,  if  I  had  time  to  dwell,  I 
would  dwell  upon  the  weight  of  Divine  wrath,  that  descended  upon  him 
and  crushed  him,  in  the  hour  of  the  world's  atonement.  I  would  go 
to  that.  Why  ?  Because  my  Savior  went  to  it.  He  often  spoke  of 
that  hour ;  and  there  seemed  to  be  something  brooding  upon  his  mind, 
in  reference  to  that  awful  hour,  throughout  his  life.  He  spoke  of  it 
to  his  disciples  often.  He  spoke  of  it  on  the  mount  of  transfiguration ; 
there  it  is  said,"  He  spake  of  his  decease  which  he  should  accomplish 
at  Jerusalem."  Oh !  what  an  hour  was  that !  At  that  awful  hour, 
the  whole  universe  bent  an  eager  aspect  towards  him,  angels  gazed 
upon  him  with  breathless  silence,  devils  leagued  their  forces  to  uphold 
their  empire.  That  was  the  most  interesting  hour  the  world  ever 
knew.  If  Christ  had  then  quitted  our  cause,  you  and  I  had  perished 
for  ever  ;  but,  adored  be  our  Savior !  He  did  not  quit  our  cause.  No, 
he  longed  for  the  garments  dyed  in  blood ;  he  said,.  "  How  am  I 
straitened,  till  that  baptism  be  accomplished  ; "  he  trod  with  un- 
wavering step  that  path  of  difficulty  ;  he  buffeted  with  that  hour,  and 
at  the  close  of  it  he  shouted,  with  a  voice  that  shook  hell  to  its  centre, 
reverberated  through  the  universe,  and  filled  all  heaven  with  gladness, 
"  It  is  finished."  Oh !  go,  my  fellow-sinner,  go  to  the  cross.  Stand 
by  the  cross.  Here  is  the  ransom-price  for  thy  soul.  Here  is  atone- 
ment made  for  thy  sins.  Go  to  the  cross,  and  cry,  with  the  apostle, 
"  I  am  determined  not  to  know  any  thing,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him 
crucified." 

Oh  !  what  is  there  so  noble,  so  sublime,  so  majestic,  as  the  crucifixion 
of  our  Lord  ?  Oh !  be  Christians,  be  Christians.  Men  may  talk 
about  deeds  of  human  enterprise  and  human  chivalry ;  they  may  speak 
of  the  senate-house,  where  the  passing  of  an  act  of  Parliament  has 
decided  the  interests  of  millions  in  a  single  moment ;  they  may  tell  of 
the  battle-field,  where  hundreds  have  stood  for  hours  up  to  the  ancles 
in  human  blood  ;  they  may  speak  of  the  accession  of  a  temporal  prince, 
or  a  temporal  princess,  where  thousands  have  been  fixed  in  immovable 
gaze  at  the  pomp  of  majesty.  But  we  will  go  to  the  cross ;  we  will 
stand  by  the  cross ;  we  will  gaze  upon  the  Savior ;  and  we  will  cry, 
"  I  determine  not  to  know  any  thing,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  cru- 
cified." Oh  !  I  wish  this  morning  I  might  lig  the  humble  instrument, 
in  God's  hand,  of  giving  you,  or  getting  you,  more  love  to  Christ.  Oh ! 
go  to  the  cross  ;  love  your  Savior,  adore  your  Savior,  admire  your 


KNOWLEDGE   OF   CHRIST   CRUCIFIED.  57 

Savior.     I  tell  you,  it  will  afford  the  richest  enjoyment.     You  will  sing 
■with  the  poet  — 

"  Sweet  the  moments,  rich  in  blessing, 
Which  before  the  cross  I  spenii; 
Life,  and  heulth,  and  peace  possessing, 
From  the  sinner's  dying  Friend. 
Hero  I  Ml  sit  for  ever  viewing 
Mercy's  streams  in  streams  of  blood  ! 
Precious  drops,  my  soul  bedewing, 
'  Plead  and  claim  my  peace  with  God." 

Oh  go  to  the  cross,  then ;  and  say,  with  the  apostle  Paul,  "  I  am 
determined  not  to  know  any  thing,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  cruci- 
fied." 

II.  But  we  promised  to  bring  forward,  in  the  second  place,  some 
REASONS  to  justify  a  determination  so  great,  as  that  which  is  avowed 
in  the  words  of  my  text.  The  apostle  said,  "  he  was  determined  not 
to  know  any  thing,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  crucified." 

I  have  already  informed  you  of  the  occasion  of  these  words,  and 
spoken  to  you  of  Paul  going  amidst  the  philosophers  and  sages  of 
Greece,  and  telling  them  the  simple  tale  of  Christ  crucified,  and  how 
they  despised  him.  But  Paul  was  far  above  being  turned  from  his 
work  by  them.     And  why  ? 

1.  He  knew  that  it  did  not  want  the  power  of  human  eloquence  to 
set  forth  this  truth.  No ;  what  would  you  say  to  me,  if  I  were  to 
light  a  taper  at  mid-day  to  show  you  the  meridian  sun  ?  what  would 
you  say  to  me,  if  I  were  to  take  you  to  a  small  pool,  and  say.  Look 
there,  you  see  what  the  ocean  is  ?  what  would  you  say  to  me,  if  I 
were  to  take  you  out  to  some  of  the  richest  scenery  that  this  world 
would  afford,  and,  after  I  had  shown  it  you,  give  you  a  piece  of  colored 
glass,  and  say.  Look  at  that  scene,  through  this  piece  of  colored  glass  ? 
Why,  you  would  say,  let  the  sun  shine  in  its  own  glory,  let  the 
ocean  flow  in  its  own  expanse,  let  nature  be  shown  in  her  own 
robes.  And  let  the  gospel  be  seen  in  its  own  power.  Paul  knew  that 
it  did  not  need  any  power  of  human  eloquence  to  set  it  forth^  No  ; 
it  was  "  the  wisdom  of  God,"  and  it  needed  the  power  of  God,  and 
nothing  else,  to  set  it  forth.  And,  therefore,  he  said,  "  I  am  deter- 
mined not  to  know  any  thing  among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him 
crucified." 

2.  There  is  another  reason  for  bringing  this  forward  —  another  rea- 
son to  justify  St.  Paul,  and  to  lead  you  to  the  foot  of  the  cross ;  and  it 
is  this  —  the  knowledge  of  Christ  crucified  is  certain  hnoivledge  ;  and 
in  this  it  is  distinguished  from  all  other  kinds  of  knowledge.  This 
declaration  would  have  applied  in  the  days  of  the  apostle  ;  for  you 
remember  the  mythology  of  the  ancients ;  you  remember  that  Greece, 


58  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

in  the  height  of  her  intellectual  power,  had  thirty  thousand  gods,  and 
thej  were  conflicting  in  their  temples  day  after  day,  where  Paul  was,  as 
to  what  was  the  right  object  of  worship  ;  but  Paul  knew  that  Chi-ist  the 
Savior  was  the  right  object  of  worship,  and  on  account  of  the  certainty 
of  this  knowledge,  he  had  a  right  to  determine,  and  he  did  "  determine 
not  to  know  any  thing,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  crucified."  And 
there  is  a  great  deal  of  uncertainty  in  our  day  in  all  sciences.  Take 
the  knowledge  of  anatomy,  for  instance ;  a  man  may  tell  me  how  my 
bod}^  is  composed,  my  bones,  and  flesh,  and  blood,  but  he  cannot  tell 
me  how  will  acts  upon  motion  —  how  it  is  that  I  can,  when  I  like, 
move  my  foot,  or  move  my  hand.  Take  astronomy ;  a  man  may  tell 
me  how  far  a  planet  is  off",  but  he  cannot  tell  me  whether  it  is  inhabited. 
Take  chemistry ;  why,  you  may  torture  nature  with  your  fires,  but  she 
will  not  divulge  her  secrets.  No ;  it  is  still  as  then,  that  there  is  a 
great  deal  of  ignorance.  Athens  was  in  ignorance ;  she  had  erected 
an  altar  to  "  the  unknown  God,"  and  it  was  only  Paul  that  could  stand 
up  and  say,  "Him  declare  I  unto  you."  Paul  had  tried  for  himself, 
he  knew  for  himself,  and  therefore  he  had  a  right  to  exclaim,  "  I  am 
determined  not  to  know  anything  among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and 
Him  crucified." 

I  would  stay  a  moment  here,  and  I  would  have  you  try,  each  and  all 
for  yourselves,  the  certainty  of  this  knowledge.  You  may  talk  about 
evidence  of  other  sorts ;  you  may  talk  about  historical  evidence,  and 
you  may  talk  about  internal  evidence  ;  but  it  is  only  experimental 
evidence  that  can  satisfy  the  mind.  Now  I  will  suppose  a  familiar 
illustration,  to  make  this  clear  to  you  all.  Supposing  that  one  of  you 
sent  your  servant  to  a  shop  for  something ;  say  for  a  bottle  of  ink ; 
well,  the  girl  comes  back,  and  you  ask  her  what  she  has  got;  "  Why ! " 
she  says,  "  I  asked  the  shopman  for  ink,  and  he  has  given  me  ink,  here 
it  is,  here  is  the  bottle  "  —  that  is  historical  evidence,  the  testimony  of 
others  to  a  fact ;  but  you  are  not  quite  satisfied  ;  you  open  the  bottle, 
and  you  look  at  the  ink,  and  find  it  is  black,  and  it  smells  like  ink  — 
that  is  internal  evidence  ;  but  still  you  are  not  satisfied ;  you  take  your 
pen  and  dip  it  into  the  bottle,  and  you  write,  and  you  know  it  is  ink, 
because  you  have  written  Avith  it.  Now  suppose  a  neighbor  should 
come  in,  and  should  say,  "  The  shopman  has  deceived  you,  or  your 
servant  has  deceived  you  —  it  is  not  ink."  What  would  you  do? 
Would  you  send  for  the  servant,  and  question  her  about  what  the  shop- 
man said  to  her  ?  No,  you  would  say.  It  is  ink  ;  I  know  it  is  because 
I  have  tried  it.  And  so  a  man  may  talk  about  the  evidence  arising 
from  Jesus  Christ  being  a  good  man,  and  such  a  character  as  this  . 
world  never  saw  besides ;  but  Paul  had  rested  upon  the  Savior ;  he 


KNOWLEDGE   OF   CHRIST   CRUCIFIED.  59 

knew  for  himself  that  he  was  a  Savior,  and,  therefore,  amidst  the 
philosophers  of  Greece  and  Rome  he  cried,  "  I  determined  not  to  know 
any  thing,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  crucified." 

3.  If  you  ask  me  for  another  reason,  then  I  say,  that  tlie  knowledge 
of  Christ  crucified  is  suited  to  you  as  guilty  sinners.  Much  of  the 
interest  of  any  thing,  you  know,  depends  upon  its  suitabihty.  Take 
an  illustration  or  two.  Go  to  the  man,  Avho  is  living  this  day  in  the 
midst  of  his  family,  in  all  the  comforts  of  his  home,  and  say  to  him, 
You  may  enjoy  the  blessings  of  home  ;  why,  the  man  sees  that  there 
is  nothing  in  that  communication  —  nothing  in  that  knowledge  —  that 
is  at  all  suited  to  him,  for  he  was  already  enjoying  the  comforts  of  his 
house  ;  but  go  to  the  soldier,  who  is  wearied  by  a  long  and  arduous 
campaign,  whose  ears  have  been  deafened  many  a  time  by  the  cannon 
roar,  who  is  sighing  for  the  quiet  shadow  of  the  village  trees,  under 
whose  broad  foliage  he  reclined  and  sung  in  days  of  youthful  inno- 
cence—  tell  him  that  peace  is  proclaimed,  the  warfare  accomplished, 
he  may  go  home  —  why,  he  smiles,  he  dances  for  joy,  he  thanks  you — 
because  there  is  something  in  your  information  suited  to  his  taste. 
Go  to  the  man  who  is  walking  through  your  streets,  and  say  to  him, 
You  may  enjoy  the  comforts  of  freedom  —  the  man  returns  you 
no  thanks  ;  there  is  notliing  in  that  information  suited  to  him ;  but  go 
to  the  captive,  whose  clothes  are  wet  with  the  damp  of  the  dungeon, 
and  his  cheek  marked  by  the  flow  of  his  tears,  and  see  how  his  eyes 
sparkle  with  delight,  when  you  tell  him  that  the  dungeon  door  is  open, 
and  he  may  go  free.  And  so  it  is  with  the  sinner.  If  I  come  to  you 
and  tell  you  of  a  Savior,  and  you  are  shut  up  in  carnal  security,  fan- 
cying yourselves  good  enough,  and  going  to  heaven,  there  is  nothing 
in  the  information  suited  to  you ;  and  if  you  are  trembling  because  of 
your  sins,  then  I  bring  you  good  news.  I  tell  you  this  morning,  Christ 
■was  crucified  for  you  and  for  me  ;  and  therefore  you  ought  to  say  and 
avow,  with  the  apostle,  "  I  am  determined  not  to  know  any  thing,  save 
Jesus  Christ,  and  him  crucified." 

4.  There  is  another  reason — it  is  extensive  knowledge.  He,  who 
knows  Christ,  knows  almost  every  thing  else  besides.  This  knowledge 
has  not  only  hght  in  itself,  but  it  throws  light  on  all  other  things.  He, 
that  knows  Christ,  knows  the  evil  nature  of  sin  in  a  better  way  than 
any  other  man  does.  Where  will  you  go,  to  show  me  the  evil  nature 
of  sin  ?  Why,  perhaps,  some  of  you  would  show  me  a  poor  drunkard, 
that  is  to  be  found  (and  sorry  am  I  to  see  that  there  are  so  many  in  this 
large  town)  reeling  through  the  streets,  perhaps  on  the  Sabbath-day, 
with  swollen  eyes,  an  aching  head,  and  (I  fear)  a  troubled  heart ;  you 
would  say.    Look  at  that  man,  his  home  has  become  a  dungeon  of 


60  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

discontent,  liis  wife  sighs  whenever  she  sees  him,  his  children  w^ear 
patched  and  tattered  clothes,  and  soon  the  devil  will  take  him,  we  fear 
—  look  at  that  man,  and  see  the  evil  of  shi !  I  look  at  that  man,  but 
I  do  not  stop  there.  Where  would  others  of  you  take  me  ?  jou  would 
take  me  to  the  murderer's  cell,  and  say  to  me  that  he  is  going  to  ex- 
piate his  offence  against  his  country's  laws,  and  you  would  tell  me  to 
look  at  him  in  his  extremity,  and  see  the  evil  of  sin ;  I  look  at  that 
man,  but  I  do  not  stop  there.  Where  would  you  go  ?  Perhaps  you 
would  take  me  to  the  mouth  of  hell ;  you  would  blow  aside  its  hquid 
flames,  and  bid  me  listen  to  the  groanings  and  bowlings  of  the  damned 
in  the  pit  of  despair,  and  you  would  say,  There  see  the  evil  nature  of 
sin ;  I  would  go  with  you,  but  I  do  not  stay  there.  I  go  to  Calvary  ; 
I  gaze  upon  my  Savior ;  I  remember,  that  that  is  God  and  man 
united,  and  hung  upon  the  cross  ;  and  I  say,  how  great  must  be  sin's 
evil  nature,  since  none  but  God  incarnate  could  make  atonement  for 
the  sins  of  mankind. 

He  who  know^s  Christ  crucified,  knows  the  goodness  of  God  in  its 
richest  form.  Where  will  you  go,  to  show  me  the  most  striking  pic- 
tures of  the  goodness  of  God  ?  Some  of  you,  fathers,  would  take  me, 
perhaps,  to  your  habitations,  and  point  me  to  your  children  smiling 
around  you  in  health  and  happiness,  and  say,  See  there  a  proof  of 
the  goodness  of  God !  I  go  with  you  to  your  habitations,  but  I  do 
not  stop  there.  Where  would  you  go  for  a  proof  of  the  goodness 
of  God  ?  Perhaps  some  of  you  Avould  take  me  to  the  corn-fields,  and 
show  me  the  gold  ears  waving  in  the  breeze,  and,  as  you  pointed  to 
them,  say.  See,  there  is  food  for  man  and  food  for  beast,  there  is  a 
proof  of  the  goodness  of  God.  I  go  with  you  to  the  corn-fields,  but 
I  do  not  stop  there.  Perhaps  some  of  you  would  take  me  to  some 
vale  that  was  by,  and  show  me  a  nest  having  in  it  a  few  little  unfledged 
birds,  with  nothing  above  it  but  the  broad  sky,  and  the  open  air  about 
it,  and  they  are  poor,  weak,  and  helpless  creatures,  and  must  be  starved 
to  death  unless  they  have  food  in  a  few  hours,  and  you  would  remind 
me  of  God  having  sent  forth  his  messengers  to  collect  it  for  them,  and 
you  would  say,  See,  there  is  a  proof  of  the  goodness  of  God.  I  go 
■with  you  to  that  vale  and  that  nest,  but  I  do  not  stop  there.  I  go  to 
Calvary,  and  I  see  there  the  greatest  picture  of  God's  love  to  man, 
for  I  see  Jesus  hanging  upon  the  cross.  I  see  there  the  best  proof  of 
God's  love  to  man  as  a  guilty  sinner,  and,  with  a  sight  of  the  cross,  I  cry, 
"  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life." 

He  who  knows  Christ  crucified,  knows  history  in  its  best  form,  much 
better  than  the  mere  historian,  who  is  to  be  found  with  his  midnight 


KNOWLEDGE   OF   CHRIST   CRUCIFIED.  61 

lamp  over  musty  volumes  of  ancient  times.  He  looks  at  tlie  call  of 
Abraham,  and  the  passage  of  the  Israelites  through  the  wilderness, 
and  he  shows  how  God  was  preparing  the  way  for  the  establishment 
of  Christianity  in  the  world.  He  knows  not  only  the  histoi'y  of  the 
past,  but  he  can  tell  the  history  of  the  future.  Why,  philosophy 
walks  your  churchyards,  and  asks,  "If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live 
again  ?  "  but  there  is  no  answer  to  the  question.  Reason  has  sent 
out  her  sons,  in  all  ages  and  in  all  directions,  to  look  for  the  rays  of 
immortality,  that  are  said  to  be  darting  across  the  path  of  man's  ex- 
istence ;  but  they  return  disheartened  and  misuccessful.  It  is  true, 
that  there  were  some  few,  of  giant  intellect,  that  expressed  their 
hopes  of  another  state  of  existence,  but  what  they  spoke  of  at  one 
time,  they  doubted  at  another.  Socrates  and  Plato  at  one  time  spoke 
as  from  the  brightness  of  heaven,  and  at  another  as  from  the  dark- 
ness of  the  tomb.  It  was  all  uncertainty ;  there  is  a  veil,  and  the 
hand  of  philosophy  can  never  draw  it  aside.  But  the  gospel  has 
caused  the  light  to  shine  upon  that  veil,  and  it  has  become  transpa- 
rent, and  you  may  see,  on  the  other  side  of  that  veil,  the  form  of 
departed  friends ;  you  may  see  Lazarus  in  the  bosom  of  Abraham, 
you  may  see  Dives  in  hell,  lifting  up  his  eyes,  being  in  torments,  and 
hear  him  cry,  "  I  am.  tormented  in  this  flame."  0  yes,  while  man 
knows  nothing  of  the  future,  and  sees  the  earth  heaved  above  its 
proper  level,  and  knows  that  the  bodies  of  the  dead  are  there  con- 
fined, yet  cannot  answer  the  question,  "  If  a  man  die,  shall  he  live 
agam  ?  "  —  the  Christian  can.  He  knows  that  Christ  "  shall  change 
our  vile  body,  that  it  may  be  fashioned  like  unto  his  glorious  body  ; " 
and  if  you  ask.  How  can  it  be  done  ?  —  we  take  up  the  words  of  the 
apostle,  and  say,  "  According  to  the  mighty  working,  whereby  he  is 
able  even  to  subdue  all  things  unto  himself." 

On  account  of  its  extent,  then,  take  up  the  words  of  the  text  and 
say,  "  I  am  determined  not  to  know  any  thmg  save  Jesus  Christ,  and 
him  crucified." 

5.  If  I  had  time,  I  would  go  on  to  show  that  it  is  sanctified  hnoio- 
ledge  —  it  is  purifving.  It  is  not  a  knowledge  that  regards  the  outer 
man,  and  says  that  if  he  will  attend  to  this  and  that,  to  which  he  is 
averse,  and  avoid  this  and  that  to  which  he  is  prone,  he  shall  become 
a  well-behaved  and  orderly  man  in  society.  Alas  !  for  sueli  know- 
ledge. It  is  never  said  in  my  Bible,  that  a  man  has  a  head  "  of  unbe- 
lief in  departing  from  the  living  God  ;  "  but  it  is  written  in  my  Bible, 
that  man  has  an  "  evil  heart  of  unbelief  in  departing  from  the  living 
God."  This  knowledge  (I  mean,  experimental  knowledge)  passes 
through  every  vein  where  sin  has  passed  ;  it  neutralizes  the  stream  as 


62  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

it  passes ;  it  goes  down  to  tlic  fountain,  and  it  purifies  the  fountain. 
It  requires  a  man  to  "  come  out  from  the  world,  and  be  separate,  and 
touch  not  the  unclean  thing." 

Oh !  then,  look  at  the  characteristics  of  this  knowledge  —  the 
knowledge  of  Christ  crucified  —  and  say  if  you  will  not  go  to  the 
cross  this  moniing  and  cry  with  the  apostle,  "  I  am  determined  not 
to  know  anything,  save  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified."  Oh !  again 
I  say,  I  wish  you  would  love  your  Savior.  If  you  came  to  me,  and 
told  me  you  were  a  Christian,  I  would  ask  you  how  much  you  loved 
your  Savior  ;  and,  In  proportion  as  you  loved  your  Savior,  I  know  the 
Word  of  God  would  stand  with  me,  when  I  declared  that  in  that  pro- 
portion you  were  a  Christian.  I  love  to  read  the  prophecies  of  this 
book  ;  the  prophets  seem  to  have  gone  over  the  surface  of  creation, 
and  sought  the  most  lovely  images  to  set  forth  the  Savior  ;  they  call 
him  a  "  Sun,"  and  they  call  him  a  "  Sliield,"  and  a  "  Star,"  and  a 
''  Tree  ;  "  oh !  hut— 

"  Nor  earth,  nor  seas,  nor  sun,  nor  stars, 
Nor  heav'n  his  full  resemblance  bears  ; 
His  beauties  you  can  never  trace, 
Till  you  behold  him  face  to  face." 

Oh !  love  your  Savior.  Remember  he  loved  you.  Remember  he 
was  not  fastened  to  the  cross  by  spikes  or  nails  ;  if  Christ  my  Sa- 
vior had  never  been  fastened  to  the  cross  by  any  thing  but  spikes  or 
nails,  he  would  never  have  been  fastened  to  it  at  all.  It  was  hia 
iove  that  led  him  there  ;  it  was  his  love  that  bound  him  there.  Oh, 
you  are  ready  to  cry  this  morning,  let  nature  speak  with  her  ten 
thousand  tongues : 

"  Oh  !  for  this  love  let  rocks  and  hills 
Their  lasting  silence  break, 
And  all  harmonious  human  tongues 
The  Savior's  praises  speak." 

I  wish  I  had  this  morning  one  moment  of  poetic  inspiration  to  give 
vent  to  the  zeal,  with  which  my  bosom  burns.  I  wish  I  had  this  morn- 
ing a  voice  of  thunder,  that  it  might  be  borne  across  the  breezes  of 
the  mighty  ocean  ;  I  would  cry  to  every  sinner  in  this  world  to  come 
forth,  and  avow  the  determination  of  St.  Paul,  and  say,  "  I  am  de- 
termiaed  not  to  know  any  thing,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  cruci- 
fied." This  shall  be  the  theme  of  my  discourse  as  long  as  God  will 
give  me  breath,  while  I  stand  in  the  midst  of  sinners.  "Woe  be  to  the 
minister,  who  weaves  garlands  of  flowers  to  please  his  people  ;  the 
Lord  help  us  to  preach  Christ ;  the  Lord  help  us  to  cry  to  this  wicked, 
this  apostate  town,  "  I  am  determined  not  to  know  any  thhag  among 
you,  save  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified."  / 

0,thou  guilty  sinner,  I  cannot  leave  thee.     I  again  tell  thee,  the 


KNOWLEDGE   OF   CHRIST   CRUCIFIED.  63 

waj  is  open  to  the  cross.  Go  to  the  cross.  Thou  hast  heard  he  is  a 
Savior ;  he  can  save  to  the  uttennost ;  lay  hold  of  that  Savior.  What 
is  faith  in  Christ  ?  It  is  a  reliance  upon  Christ,  a  firm  reliance  upon 
your  Savior.  It  is  like  a  man  ready  to  drown  —  throw  him  a  shilling 
rope  and  a  thousand  pounds  bank  note  —  which  would  he  choose  ?  We 
have  heard  of  some  who  have  preferred  this  world  to  Christ ;  but 
throw  a  dro^\^ling  man  a  shilling  rope  and  a  thousand  pounds  ;  will  he 
argue,  "  Oh !  I  wonder  if  this  rope  be  strong  enough,  I  wonder  if  it 
is  twisted  the  right  way  ?  "  no,  the  man  says,  "  I  am  drowning,  and 
unless  I  get  get  hold  of  the  rope,  I  shall  be  lost."  So  it  is  with  thee, 
my  poor  fellow-sinner.  I  have  not  many  moments  to  speak  to  thee, 
and  therefore  I  show  thee  a  plain  illustration ;  I  toll  thee,  thou  must, 
by  the  hand  of  faith,  get  hold  of  the  Savior,  and  cling  to  the  Savior, 
and  then,  sure  as  God's  Word,  thy  debt  is  paid,  thy  soul  is  saved  and 
thou  art  justified.  I  tell  you,  there  is  a  way  to  the  cross  ;  I  tell  you 
there  are  blessmgs  clustered  in  the  cross  ;  I  tell  you  there  is  a  Savior 
hanging  on  that  cross ;  and  what  is  his  language  ?  "  Look  unto 
me  "  —  "  look  unto  me  "  —  "  look  unto  me,  and  be  ye  saved,  aU  ye 
ends  of  the  earth."  "  Oh !  but,"  says  the  sinner,  "  you  do  not  know 
my  case ;  I  was  the  child  of  pious  parents ;  when  upon  earth  they 
prayed  with  me,  and  laid  their  hands  upon  my  head,  and  cried  to  God 
to  save  me  ;  but  their  hoary  heads  are  in  the  grave  ;  they  are  dead 
and  gone  to  God,  and  I  am  not  saved ;  do  you  think  there  is  sal- 
vation for  me?"  I  tell  you  there  is  —  there  is  mercy  for  you. 
Jesus  is  "  able  to  save  to  the  uttermost."  Christ  crucified  can  bring 
you  into  the  peace  and  favor  of  God  in  this  world,  and  take  you  to 
reign  with  God  for  ever. 

Now  I  will  just  give  you  a  specimen  —  a  sample  of  God's  ability 
to  save.  You  have  looked  at  the  cross,  and  you  have  looked  at  the 
^avior ;  now  look  at  one  side  of  the  cross,  and  see  what  is  there. 
There  is  another  bemg  crucified  with  the  Savior  ;  look  at  him,  a  poor 
wretch,  who  is  deemed  unfit  for  this  world,  who  has  been  tauntmg  the 
Savior,  and  saying  to  him,  "  If  thou  be  the  Christ,  save  thyself  and 
us."  But  see ;  Jesus  has  turned  and  looked  upon  him,  and  that 
sight  has  broken  his  heart,  and  he  has  looked  at  Christ  with  the  eye 
of  faith,  and  through  the  prickly  thorns  streaming  with  blood,  and  he 
has  said,  "  Lord,,  remember  me  when  thou  comest  into  thy  king- 
dom." Can  he  save  him?  can  he  save  him?  Will  he  save  him? 
will  he  save  him  ?  Here  is  a  poor  wretch,  perhaps,  who  never 
prayed  in  his  fife  before,  and  just  as  his  tongue  is  cleaving  to  the 
roof  of  his  mouth  in  the  agonies  of  dissolution,  and  his  life-blood  is 
gui-gling  from  his  hands  and  feet,  he  cries,  "  Lord,  remember  me." 


64  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

Will  he  save  him  ?  What  does  he  saj  ?  He  said  nothing  to  the 
multitudes  that  were  shouting  around  the  cross  ;  he  said  nothing  to  the 
scoffs  of  the  scorncr  ;  no,  the  scoffs  of  the  scorner  he  noticed  not,  the 
shouts  of  the  multitude  he  regarded  not.  But  here  is  a  penitent  whis- 
pering in  his  ear  the  cry  for  mercy,  and  that  he  hears,  and  he  says, 
"  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee,  this  day  shalt  thou  be  with  me  in 
paradise."  And  that  day,  before  six  o'clock  at  night,  Christ  took  the 
spirit  of  the  thief  up  to  heaven ;  and  it  is  there  this  morning,  as  a  sam- 
ple of  God's  ability  to  save.  Oh  !  go  to  thy  Savior,  gaze  upon  thy 
Savior.  While  you  see  him  taking  the  spirit  of  the  thief  up  to  para- 
dise with  him,  say,  on  account  of  his  love,  on  account  of  his  mercy,  "  I 
am  determined  not  to  know  any  thing,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  cru- 
cified." 

The  Lord  add  his  blessing,  and  save  you  all  —  save  you  in  this  life 
—  save  you  in  death,  and  save  you  for  ever.  For,  blessed  be  God, 
there  is  an  eternal  home  with  him ;  and  if  you  once  put  your  feet  with- 
in the  threshold  of  heaven's  gate,  you  may  go  to  its  pearly  battlements 
and  cry,  "  Farewell,  tempting  devil !  farewell,  sin  and  sorrow,  I  am  far 
from  the  world,  and  far  from  your  reach."  Lord !  save  us  all  for  ever- 
more in  Christ. 


SERMON    V, 

Christ's  church. 

BY   REV.    T.    BAFFLES,    D.  D.,  L.  L.  D. 

"  And  I  say  unto  thee,  That  thou  art  Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  Church  ;  and  the  gates 
of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it." — Matthew  xvi.  18. 

Perhaps  there  is  no  passage  of  Holy  Scripture  that  has  furnished 
more  abundant  materials  for  controversy  than  this.  There  are  no  less 
than  six  modes,  for  instance,  of  interpreting  the  word  "  rock  ;  "  and 
each  of  these  modes  of  interpretation  can  boast  its  great  name,  and 
claim  for  its  sanction  some  acknowledged  masters  in  Israel ;  whilst  the 
nature  and  constitution  of  the  "  Church,"  which  our  Lord  declares  he 
"  will  build  upon  that  rock,"  has  been,  from  time  immemorial,  and  is  at 
this  present  moment,  matter  of  furious  controversy  and  warm  debate. 
With  this  controversy,  however,  we  purpose  not  to  intermeddle ;  we 
tave  neither  time  nor  inclination  for  this ;  but  we  shall  simply  endeav- 


Christ's  church.  65 

or,  bj  Divine  help,  to  give  you  a  plain  and  practicalj  and,  I  trust,  in- 
telligent exposition  of  the  passage. 

With  the  occasion  of  it,  you  are,  doubtless,  perfectly  familiar. 
When  our  Lord  "  came  into  the  coasts  of  Cesarca  Philippi,"  the  sacred 
historian  tells  us  he  began  to  inquire  of  his  disciples  what  were  the 
opinions  which  men  entertained  and  expressed  concerning  him.  The 
general  impression  is,  that  he  went  thither  for  the  sake  of  retirement 
and  instructive  conversation  with  his  disciples  ;  but  whatever  might 
have  been  his  immediate  motive,  he  certainly  did  most  effectually 
improve  his  residence  there  for  that  purpose.  He  opened  the  conver- 
sation, which  he  there  held  with  them,  by  the  important  question, 
*'  "Whom  do  men  say  that  I  the  Son  of  man  am  ?  "  What  is  the 
general  opinion  which  men  entertain  and  express  concerning  me  ? 

Many  propose  a  similar  question  concerning  themselves  from  motives 
of  vanity  and  of  overweening  self-conceit,  in  the  hope  of  hearing  in 
reply  something  that  will  minister  to  their  pride,  and  prove  as  grateful 
incense  offered  at  the  shrine  of  their  self-esteem.  But  of  such  a  mo- 
tive as  this,  the  Redeemer  was  incapable  :  and  the  question  he  thus 
proposed  to  the  disciples,  was  for  their  sakes,  rather  than  his  own, — 
that  from  their  answer  he  might  take  occasion  more  aptly  and  impres- 
sively to  "  expound  to  them  the  things  concerning  himself:  "  his  mys- 
terious nature,  his  mediatorial  character,  and  his  spiritual  kingdom. 

And  then  they  told  him  — "  Some  say  that  thou  art  John  the  Bap- 
tist ;  some,  Elias  ;  and  others,  Jeremias,  or  one  of  the  prophets  ;  "  for 
there  was  a  controversy  respecting  him  at  that  day,  as  well  as  now. 
Some  regarded  him  as  an  impostor  and  a  deceiver  of  the  people  ;  some 
said,  "  He  hath  a  devil,  and  is  mad,"  and  marvelled  that  such  multi- 
tudes should  flock  to  hear  him ;  some  even  dared  to  affirm  that  he  was 
in  league  with  the  powers  of  darkness,  and  wrought  his  stupendous 
miracles  by  Satanic  agency. 

And  this  appears  to  me  to  be  that  very  "  sin  against  the  Holy 
Ghost  "  which  shall  never  be  forgiven,  "  neither  in  this  world,  nor  in 
that  which  is  to  come  "  —  to  ascribe  to  infernal  influence  those  mighty 
works  which  he  wrought  by  the  immediate  agency  of  the  Spirit  of 
God ;  for  immediately  after  the  utterance  of  this  blasphemy,  "  He 
casteth  out  devils  by  Beelzebub,  the  prince  of  the  devils,"  our  Lord 
pronounced  these  tremendous  words,  "  Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  all 
sins  shall  be  forgiven  unto  the  sons  of  men,  and  blasphemies  wherewith 
soever  they  shall  blaspheme  :  but  he  that  shall  blaspheme  against  the 
Holy  Ghost  hath  never  forgiveness,  but  is  in  danger  of  eternal  damna- 
tion; "and  it  is  added — '■^Because  they  said,  He  hath  an  unclean 
spirit." 

5 


66  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

But  among  those  who  entertained  better  opinions,  a  general  impres- 
sion was,  that  he  was  John  the  Baptist,  or  one  of  the  ancient  prophets 
risen  from  the  dead.  And  when  they  thus  told  him  the  various  opin- 
ions men  entertained  respecting  him,  he  added,  "  But  whom  say  ye 
that  I  am  ?  "  What  is  your  opinion  ?  And  Peter,  always  prompt, 
ever  ardent,  instantly  responded,  "  Thou  art  the  Christ  "  —  the  Mes- 
siah, the  Anointed — "  the  Son  of  the  living  God."  Now  it  was  in 
reply  to  Peter,  and  as  suggested  by  his  answer,  that  our  Lord  gave 
utterance  to  the  memorable  announcement  of  the  text :  "'And  I  say 
also  unto  thee,  that  thou  art  Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my 
Church  ;  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it." 

There  are  two  things,  to  which  our  attention  is  demanded  in  the 
text ;  first,  the  edifice  of  which  the  Redeemer  speaks — the  "  Church," 
and,  secondly,  the  relation  in  which  he  himself  stands  to  that  edifice : 
"my  Church."  "Upon  this  rock  I  will  build  my  Church;  and  the 
gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it." 

I.  First,  the  edifice  of  which  the  Redeemer  speaks — the  Church — 
"  my  Church."     What  does  he  mean  by  his  Church  ? 

Not  any  material  building,  of  whatever  form  or  dimensions,  however 
costly  the  materials  of  Avhich  it  is  composed,  however  approved  the 
style  of  architecture  in  which  it  is  constructed,  however  vast  the  pro- 
portions by  which  it  is  distinguished,  however  exquisite  the  skill  with 
which  it  is  wrought,  however  gorgeous  the  ceremonial,  however  appro- 
priate the  rites  by  which  it  is  consecrated.  Though  there  may  be  the 
long-drawn  aisle,  and  the  fretted  vault,  and  the  peahng  anthem,  and 
the  measui-ed  chant — all  this  does  not  constitute  a  church,  according 
to  the  New  Testament  acceptation  of  the  term,  nor,  assuredly,  in  the 
sense  in  which  our  Lord  is  to  be  understood  in  the  passage  before  us. 
Nor  are  we  to  understand  by  it  any  building  of  humbler  kind,  or  of 
worse  materials,  or  of  inferior  workmanship. 

No  mere  collection  of  material  things,  then,  whether  stone,  or  clay, 
or  wood,  is  a  church,  in  the  scriptural  acceptation  of  the  word.  Cus- 
tom has,  indeed,  so  applied  the  term  to  such  edifices,  that  there  are 
multitudes  who  affix  to  it  no  other  idea ;  but  not  a  solitary  instance  of 
such  an  apphcation  of  the  term  occurs  in  the  whole  compass  of  the 
sacred  volume.  But  very  few  passages  will  suffice  to  show,  that 
where  the  word  "  church  "  is  used,  whether  by  Christ  or  by  his  apos- 
tles, persons,  and  not  things,  are  intended  by  it.  Thus,  in  that  well- 
known  passage,  which  has  been  so  notoriously  perverted  from  its  right 
meaning,  referring  to  the  exercise  of  Christian  discipline,  our  Lord 
says — "If  he" — that  is,  the  ofiending  brother — "if  he  will  not 


cheist's  church.  67 

hear  thee,"  when  thou  hast  told  his  fault  iu  the  presence  of  one  or 
two  others,  (taken  with  him  as  witnesses  by  the  offended  party,)  then 
"  tell  it  unto  the  church ;  but  if  he  neglect  to  hear  the  church,  let 
him  be  unto  thee  as  an  heathen  man  and  a  pubhcan."  To  suppose 
that  our  Lord  meant,  in  this  case,  any  material  edifice,  such  as  a 
chapel  or  a  church,  in  the  ordinary  acceptation  of  the  term,  were,  you 
know,  an  utter  absurdity  ;  for,  then  must  bricks  aud  stones  be  endowed 
with  intelligence,  and  have  ears  to  hear,  and  tongues  to  speak. 

But  if  by  the  word  "  church  "  persons  are  meant,  the  question  is, 
who  are  the  persons  that  thus  compose  the  church,  and  imder  what 
circumstances  do  they  so  compose  it  ?  The  literal  meaning  of  the 
word  "  church  "  is  an  assembly  ;  but  every  assembly  is  not  a  church. 
The  tumultuous  mob  gathered  together  in  the  streets  of  Ephesus,  of 
which  we  read  in  the  Acts,  and  of  whom  it  is  said,  the  greater  part 
knew  not  wherefore  they  were  congregated — that  is  termed  an  assem- 
bly, and  the  word  translated  "  church "  is  employed  to  express  it ; 
but  that  is  not  a  church. 

The  circumstances  under  which  persons  constitute  a  church,  are  two- 
fold. To  express  the  first,  I  will  use  the  language  employed  by  one 
of  the  thirty-nine  articles  of  the  Church  of  England  —  for  I  cannot  find 
language,  to  my  apprehension,  better  fitted  for  the  purpose  :  "  A 
church,"  saith  the  article,  "  is  a  congregation  of  faithful  men,"  (mark 
you  that,)  "  in  which  congregation  the  pure  word  of  God  is  preached, 
and  the  sacraments  be  duly  ministered,  according  to  Christ's  ordinance, 
in  all  those  things  which  are  requisite  unto  the  same."  This  is  the 
first  sense  in  which  the  word  " church"  is  to  be  understood..  Every 
assembly  of  professing  Christians,  associated  or  convened  for  the  pur- 
poses of  religious  worship,  the  celebration  of  the  divine  ordinances,  the 
maintenance  or  administration  of  Christian  discipline,  or  the  enjoyment 
of  Christian  communion,  in  any  of  its  acts  or  forms,  in  one  place,  is  a 
church.  The  external  circumstances,  under  which  such  an  association 
or  society  exists,  may  be  various,  but  they  in  no  wise,  and  in  no  degree 
affect  its  essential  character.  It  may  be  large,  or  it  may  be  small ;  it 
may  be  rich,  or  it  may  be  poor ;  it  may  be  learned,  or  it  may  be  illitr 
erate  ;  there  may  be  many  such  societies,  or  more  than  one,  or  only 
one,  in  a  village,  in  a  hamlet,  in  a  town,  in  a  city,  in  a  district,  but 
each  and  every  one,  as  the  case  may  be,  is  a  church.  The  Church  at 
Jerusalem  was  so  large  that  three  thousand  were  added  to  it  in  a  sin- 
gle day ;  whilst  we  read  iu  the  New  Testament  of  churches  so  small 
that  they  could  meet  in  a  private  house.  Such  a  church  there  was  in 
the  house  of  Priscilla  and  Aquila,  and  in  the  house  of  Nymphas  ;  whilst, 
when  more  churches  than  one  existed  in  a  district,  we  do  not  find  that 


68  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

they  were  reckoned  as  one  cliurch,  and  called  tlie  cliurch  of  that  dis- 
trict or  country,  as  the  Church  of  Judea,  the  Church  of  Asia,  the 
Church  of  Macedonia,  but  each  maintained  its  distinctive  and  individ- 
ual character ;  and  they  were  designated  accordingly,  the  churches 
of  Judea,  the  churches  of  Asia,  the  churches  of  Macedonia.  And 
thus,  though  they  were  associated  in  the  bonds  of  fraternal  affection, 
and  recognized  each  other  as  the  churches  of  Christ,  and  delighted  to 
enjoy  communion  with  each  other  —  as  such  being  all  in  one  —  each 
maintained  an  independence  of  the  rest,  and  administered,  with  unfet- 
tered freedom,  its  own  affairs^  presenting  a  lovely  example  of  indepen- 
dence and  of  union  — 

"  Distinct,  as  the  billows  ;  but  one  as  the  sea." 

The  other  sense  in  which  the  word  "  church"  is  used,  is  that  which 
embraces  all  the  true  and  genuine  believers  in  Christ,  of  every  age  and 
of  every  dispensation,  of  every  color  and  of  every  clime,  of  every  coun- 
try and  of  every  region,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  time,  wheth- 
er in  visible  connexion  with  any  portion,  or  section,  or  society,  or  de- 
nomination of  professing  Christians,  or  not.  This  is  the  true,  spiritual, 
universal,  cathohc  Church  ;  the  spiritual  body  of  Christ,  of  which  every 
believer  is  a  living  member  ;  the  true  vine,  of  which  every  beUever  is 
a  livmg  branch  ;  the  spiritual  building,  in  which  every  believer  is  a 
living  stone  ;  "  the  general  assembly  and  church  of  the  first-born,  writ- 
ten in  heaven." 

,  Brethren,  here  let  us  pause  ;  and  ere  we  pass  to  the  second  article 
of  our  discourse,  let  us  gaze  upon  this  wondrous  edifice,  as  it  rises 
through  successive  ages  to  its  completion.  What  goodlj'-  stones  com- 
pose it !  —  countless  myriads  of  ransomed  and  regenerated  men.  What 
mingling  colors  adorn  it !  —  from  the  purest  white  of  Europe,  to  the 
deepest  jet  of  Africa.  How  does  every  grade  of  civilized  or  barba- 
rous life,  every  age  of  the  world,  and  every  dispensation  of  the  Church 
furnish  its  due  proportion  of  materials  for  the  glorious  edifice  !  —  from 
the  burning  Asiatic  to  the  shivering  Esquimaux  —  from  the  turbaned 
sultan  to  the  tattoed  savage  —  from  the  monarch  on  his  throne,  to  the 
negro  in  his  chains.  There  is  the  Jew,  no  more  a  devotee  to  rites 
and  ceremonies,  that  have  long  since  passed  away ;  and  there  is  the 
Pagan,  now  happily  emancipated  from  the  cruel  superstitions  by  which 
he  and  his  fathers  have  been  so  long  enslaved  ;  "  the  goodly  fellowship 
of  the  prophets,"  and  "  the  noble  army  of  martyrs,"  shine  conspicuous 
there  ;  and  there  are  all  that  love  the  Savior,  and  that  bear  his  image, 
and  that  taste  his  grace,  whatever  the  name  by  which  they  may  be 
known,  or  whether  known  by  no  name  at  all.  The  Episcopalian  is 
there,  with  the  Presbyterian ;  the  Wesleyan  is  there,  with  the  Luther- 


Christ's  church.  69 

an ;  the  ladependent  is  there,  •with  the  Baptist ;  each  rejoicing  to  re- 
cognize his  essential  union  with  all  the  rest,  and  each  regretting  that 
they  were  ever  otherwise  than  one.  And  each,  according  to  his  car 
pacitj,  contributes  to  the  perfect  symmetry,  the  exquisite  beauty,  the 
imperishable  glory,  the  surpassing  loveliness  of  this  most  august  and 
stately  temple  of  the  living  God.  That  is  his  church,  which  he  "  wiU 
build  upon  the  rock,  and  against  which  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  pre- 
vaU." 

II.  We  now  proceed,  in  the  second  place,  to  consider  the  relation  in 
which  Jesus  Christ  stands  to  this  edifice.  "  Upon  this  rock,"  he  says, 
"  I  will  build  my  church  ;  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against 
it." 

1.  In  the  first  place,  Jesus  Christ  is  its  foundation.  It  is  built  on 
him.  "  On  this  rock  I  will  build  my  church."  Some  say,  that  by 
"  this  rock,"  he  meant  Peter ;  for  that  he  says,  "  Thou  art  Peter  "  — 
alluding  to  the  meaning  of  his  name  —  "  and  on  this  rock  "  —  that  is, 
on  thee,  Peter —  "  I  will  build  my  church."  But  then  he  should  have 
said  —  (I  speak  it  with  all  reverence  ;  I  am  constrained  so  to  speak, 
for  the  argument  requires  it ;  I  speak  with  reverence)  —  but  then  he 
should  have  said,  if  such  had  been  his  meaning,  "  Thou  art  Peter ;  and 
thy  nature,  or  thine  ofSce,  or  the  place  that  I  will  assign  to  thee,  or 
the  honor  that  I  will  confer  upon  thee,  in  connexion  with  my  church, 
corresponds  with  the  meaning  of  thy  name  ;  for  as  thy  name  signifies 
a  rock  or  a  stone,  and  a  rock  or  a  stone  is  the  best  foundation,  so  upon 
thee,  Peter,  as  on  an  immovable  rock,  I  will  build  my  churcli ;  and  the 
gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it."  But  did  he  say  this  ?  No, 
nor  anything  like  it.  For  what  was  there  in  Peter  to  justify  it  ?  Was 
he  omnipotent  ?  See  him  sinking  amidst  the  waves,  and  hear  him  cry, 
"  Lord,  save,  or  I  perish."  Was  he  infallible  ?  Listen  to  his  Master's 
sharp  reproof,  addressed  to  him  almost  immediately  after  this  very  con- 
versation :  "  Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan  ;  thou  art  an  offence  unto  me : 
for  them  savorest  not  the  things  that  be  of  God,  but  those  that  be  of 
men."  Was  he  perfect  ?  Alas  !  foV  him  ;  for  he  denied  his  Lord,  and 
notwithstanding  his  solemn  pledge,  that  he  would  die  Avith  him  rather 
than  deny  him,  ere  the  cock  that  morning  crew,  he  had  set  the  seal  of 
an  oath  to  the  thrice  repeated  declaration  —  "I  know  not  the  man." 
Is  it  on  such  an  one  as  Peter,  then,  that  Christ  will  build  his  church  ? 
Nay,  if  on  any  being  inferior  to  himself  he  will  build  his  church,  it  must 
be  on  Gabriel,  the  strongest,  or  on  Michael,  the  fairest  of  the  archan- 
gels that  bow  before  the  eternal  throne.  But  neither  are  they  either  of 
them  fit  to  be  the  foundation  of  the  Christian  Church ;  for  though  they 


70  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

"  excel  in  strength,"  they  are  not  omnipotent ;  and  nothing  less  than 
omnipotence  will  suffice  to  bear  up  the  mighty  edifice,  risiug  through 
successive  ages  in  majesty  and  beauty,  or  secure  its  stability  against 
the  furious  and  combined  and  reiterated  attacks  of  earth  and  of  hell. 

So  it  is  not  Peter  that  he  means,  ■when  he  says, "  On  this  rock  I  will 
build  my  church,"  but  it  is  himself;  it  is  not  to  Peter  that  he  refers, 
but  to  his  own  Messiahship  —  that  great  fact  which  Peter's  testimony 
had  embraced,  which  "  flesh  and  blood  had  not  revealed  "  to  him, 
"  which  none  of  the  princes  of  this  world  knew  "  —  for  "  no  man  can 
thus  call  Jesus  Lord,  but  by  the  Holy  Ghost."  "  Thou  art  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  the  hving  God  "  —  the  anointed  one,  the  desire  of  all  na- 
tions, the  hope  and  expectation  of  Israel ;  "  on  this  rock  "  —  on  my- 
self, on  my  own  mysterious  person,  on  my  mediatorial  character,  on  my 
work,  on  my  obedience  unto  death,  as  the  exclusive  ground  of  hope  for 
a  perishing  world ;  on  myself,  the  only  foundation  wliich  God  has  laid, 
and  beside  which  there  is,  there  can  be  no  other  — "  on  this  rock  I 
will  build  my  church ;  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it." 

Let  us  hear  no  more  of  creeds  and  canons  and  confessions  of  unin- 
spired and  therefore  fallible  man ;  let  us  hear  no  more  of  councils  and 
convocations,  and  fathers  and  founders  of  the  Christian  Church ;  let 
us  hear  no  more  of  names  and  authorities,  of  popes  and  patriarchs,  of 
Peter  and  of  Paul,  of  Luther  and  of  Calvin,  of  Wesley  and  of  Whit- 
field, as  the  foundations  of  the  church.  Away  with  all  this  Popery 
of  Protestantism.  For  who  is  Peter,  and  who  is  Paul,  and  who  is 
Luther,  and  who  is  Calvin,  and  who  is  Wesley,  and  who  is  Whit- 
field, but  servants,  ministers,  instruments,  by  whom  the  great  Archi- 
tect condescends  to  bmld  ?  But  the  foundation,  and  the  head,  and 
the  chief  corner  stone,  and  the  top-stone  of  the  building,  is  Christ ;  and 
the  Church  is  "  built  upon  the  foundation  of  the  apostles  and  prophets, 
Jesus  Christ  himself"  — and  Jesus  Christ  alone  —  "  being  the  chief 
corner-stone  ;  in  whom  all  the  building  fitly  framed  together  gi'oweth 
unto  an  holy  temple  in  the  Lord  :  in  whom  ye  also  are  builded  together 
for  an  habitation  of  God  through  the  Spirit."  * 

2.  Secondly,  as  Jesus  Christ  is  the  foundation  of  the  Church,  so  is 
he  its  architect ;  "  on  this  Rock,"  he  says,  "  /will  build  my  Church." 
but  he  builds  rather  as  a  master-builder,  than  as  a  workman,  though  it 
is  by  virtue  of  influence  derived  from  him  that  the  workmen  he  em- 
ploys are  fitted  for  their  work,  and  rendered  efficient  operatives  in  the 
performance  of  it. 

(1.)  As  the  architect  of  it,  then,  he  selected  its  site.  He  had  the 
range  of  the  universe  where  to  choose,  and  he  fixed  on  our  earth  as 
the  favored  spot  on  which  he  would  display  the  wonders  of  redemption, 


Christ's  church.  71 

and  rear,  through  a  long  succession  of  ages,  the  glorious  structure  of 
the  Church.  What  may  be  the  history  of  other  intelligences,  ■ —  the 
inhabitants  of  other  -fforlcls,  if,  indeed,  there  are  other  worlds,  peopled 
like  our  own,  we  cannot  tell ;  but  we  know  that  there  is  a  world  where 
rebellion  arose,  that  there  is  a  race  like  our  own,  who  "  kept  not  their 
first  estate."  Yet  he  did  not  choose  to  build  his  Church  in  heaven, 
the  scene  of  rebeUion,  nor  construct  it  amid  the  ransomed  spirits, 
selected  from  among  them.  The  angels  who  "  kept  not  their  first 
estate,  and  left  their  own  habitation  "  —  for  them  no  provision  of  mercy 
is  made,  no  atoning  sacrifice  is  offered ;  and  they  are  reserved  in 
chains  and  in  darkness,  until  the  great  day.  God  verily  took  not  on 
him,  he  did  not  lay  hold  on  the  nature  of  angels,  but  he  took  on  him 
the  seed  of  Abraham ;  he  took  our  degraded  nature  into  mysterious 
and  indissoluble  union  with  his  own ;  he  came  down  to  our  polluted  and 
accursed  world,  and  there,  at  Calvary,  laid  deep  and  broad,  in  the 
death  of  the  cross,  in  the  shedding  of  his  blood,  the  foundations  of 
his  Church.  Hence  it  is  that  all  eyes,  throughout  the  universe,  are 
directed  to  this  spot ;  hence  it  is  that  this  little  speck  —  scarcely  more 
in  the  vast  system  of  worlds  with  which  it  stands  connected  —  concen- 
trates within  itself  the  profoundest  interest  of  the  loftiest  beings  in  the 
celestial  world.  Into  the  histories  involved  in  the  rise  and  progress  of 
the  Church,  "  the  angels  desire  to  look,"  and  all  the  wonders  of  re- 
demption which  it  displays  are  unknown  to  "  principahties  and  powers 
in  heavenly  places  ;  "  they  may  be  known,  not  by  the  \asible  universe, 
glorious  as  it  is,  but  by  the  Church,  infinitely  surpassing  that  in  glory 
—  "  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God." 

(2.)  As  the  architect  of  the  Church,  he  drew  the  plan.  In  his 
own  infinite  mind,  in  the  arrangements  of  the  council  of  peace,  ere  he 
"  clothed  himself  with  light  as  with  a  garment,"  ere  he  had  given 
being,  beauty,  and  harmony  to  the  system  of  a  material  universe,  ere 
"  the  morning  stars  had  sung  together,"  or  "  the  sons  of  God  shouted 
for  joy,"  he  had  conceived  the  idea,  and  formed  the  plan  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  And  having  settled,  in  its  magnificent  outline,  and 
minutest  details,  the  plan  thus  formed  in  his  infinite  mind,  he  has  con- 
descended to  lay  it  down  in  the  sacred  volume,  that  it  may  be  clearly 
understood,  and  no  man  presume  to  disturb  its  order,  or  interfere  Avith 
its  arrangements.  In  all  that  relates  to  its  visible  form,  its  internal 
economy,  its  scheme  of  doctrine,  or  its  platform  of  discipline,  we  must 
be  guided  by  the  principles  announced  or  the  order  sanctioned  by  the 
Divine  architect,  as  these  are  revealed  and  recorded  in  his  word. 
And  woe  unto  him,  who  mlfully  immolates  them  on  the  one  hand,  or 
thanklessly  abandons  them  on  the  other.     It  is  not,  brethren,  for  any 


72  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

mere  fallible  men  to  frame  laws  for  the  government  of  the  Church ;  it 
is  not  for  the  princes  and  the  potentates  of  this  world  to  assume  to 
themselves  the  headship  of  the  Church,  and  in  this  capacity,  by  and 
with  consent  of  their  councils  and  their  parliaments,  to  decree  rites  and 
ceremonies  in  the  Church ;  and  still  less  is  it  for  them  to  impose  them 
on  the  consciences  of  their  subjects,  and  by  pains  and  penalties,  and 
fines  and  imprisonments,  to  foi'ce  obedience  to  them.  They  may, 
indeed,  do  this,  but  it  is  at  their  peril ;  for  though  superior  to  all  hu- 
man tribunals  in  the  possession  of  that  power,  which  is  too  often  in  the 
hand  of  the  oppressor,  they  must  one  day  answer  for  it  at  the  tribunal 
of  Jesus  Christ  —  answer  for  their  daring  assumption  of  his  authority 
and  invasion  of  his  sacred  prerogative.  In  all  matters  of  doctrine 
and  discipline,  then,  our  first  and  last  and  final  appeal  is  "to  the  law 
and  to  the  testimony,"  as  contained  in  the  sacred  volume ;  and  if  the 
things  required  to  be  believed  or  to  be  performed  are  evidently  at  vari- 
ance with  the  letter  or  the  spirit  of  that  book,  we  are  bound  to  reject 
them  as  mere  human  inventions,  be  the  consequences  to  ourselves  what 
they  may. 

(3.)  Again,  as  the  architect  of  the  Church,  Jesus  Christ  selects 
and  prepares  the  materials  of  which  it  is  composed.  And  these  are 
"  living  stones,"  ransomed  sinners,  redeemed  men,  immortal  spirits, 
hewn  from  the  quarry  of  a  common  and  desperate  depravity,  snatched 
from  the  ruin  of  a  universal  apostacy,  renewed,  justified,  sanctified,  and 
fitted  each  for  the  place  assigned  to  it  in  the  building,  by  the  eternal 
Spirit,  whose  life-giving  power,  whose  quickening  influence,  whose  puri- 
fying grace,  are  essential  to  the  efiiciency,  the  beauty,  and  the  perfec- 
tion of  the  building.  Other  materials  there  may  be  in  the  visible 
sanctuary;  and  hence  so  many  faults  and  defects  of  the  Christian 
church  appear  even  to  the  human  eye  ;  for  men  build  upon  the  foun- 
dation "  wood,  hay,  stubble,"  base  materials,  destined  finally  to  be 
consumed.  But  when  the  Lord  himself  adds  to  the  church,  it  will  be 
"such" — and  only  such  —  "as  shall  be  saved."  Nor  shall  any 
other  stones  be  sufiered  to  occupy  a  prominent  place  in  the  building, 
when  "  the  top-stone  shall  be  brought  forth  with  shoutings  of  Grace, 
grace  unto  it." 

(4.)  Still  further ;  as  the  architect  of  the  church,  Jesus  Christ  em- 
ploys the  workmen  and  pays  them  their  wages.  "  Go  ye  into  all  the 
world,"  said  he  to  his  disciples,  "  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  crea- 
ture." This  was  the  high  commission,  under  which  the  first  body  of 
workmen  employed  in  the  erection  of  this  spiritual  building  acted. 
That  commission  we  own  to  be  in  force  at  the  present  hour  ;  and  to  it  all 
faithful  preachers  of  the  gospel  must  refer  as  their  authority,  to  the  end. 


Christ's  church.  73 

That  the  Christian  ministry  is  a  Divine  institution,  no  man,  I  appre- 
hend, can  doubt,  "who  regards  the  Bible  as  the  word  of  God.  But  who 
are  authorized  to  act  under  that  commission,  and  what  is  a  sufficient 
authority  for  their 'acting,  are  questions,  about  Avhich  there  is  no  small 
stir  in  the  present  day.  Some  hold  that  ordination  of  a  particular 
kind,  involving  a  direct,  lineal,  ecclesiastical  descent  from  the  apostles, 
is  essential  to  constitute  a  duly  authorized  preacher  of  the  gospel  and 
pastor  in  the  Church,  and  that  all  beside  are  intruders  into  the  sacred 
office,  only  pretenders  to  holy  orders,  and  that  the  ministrations  and 
ordinances  of  such  are  invalid.  But  with  regard  to  this  chimera  of 
apostolical  descent,  it  would  be  no  very  difficult  task  to  show  that  to 
trace  it  is  a  thing  all  but  impossible  ;  that  to  do  it,  you  must  include  in 
the  line  some  persons  of  no  very  apostolic  character ;  and  that-  after 
all,  a  lineal  descent  of  this  description  is  little  worth,  unless  it  secure 
along  with  it  a  transmission  of  "  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus, "  in  all  the 
simplicity  and  power  of  its  essential  principles  and  sanctifying  influ- 
ence. What  good  is  it,  that  a  man  has  received  ordination  after  the 
fashion  or  within  the  pale  of  this  church,  or  that,  if  his  doctrine  is  un- 
sound, if  his  life  is  unholy  ?  Better,  sure,  be  conducted  to  heaven  by 
the  instrumentality  of  one  who  preaches  and  who  lives  the  truth,  how- 
ever unauthorized  and  irregular  his  ministrations  in  the  estimation  of 
some,  than  be  dragged  down  to  perdition  by  the  false  doctrine  and  pes- 
tilential example  of  a  man  who  boasts  a  valid  ordination,  an  apostolic 
descent. 

But  is  it  irrelevant,  on  such  a  topic  as  this,  to  appeal  to  the  test 
which  our  Lord  has  announced  —  "By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know 
them  ?  "  If  the  validity  and  efficiency  of  a  ministry  be  in  souls  sav- 
ed unto  God,  in  sinners  repenting,  and  "  bringing  forth  fruits  meet 
for  repentance,"  then  are  there  multitudes  who  neither  claim  for  them- 
selves, nor  desire  for  themselves,  nor  grudge  to  others,  the  credit  of 
such  apostolical  descent,  whose  ministry  is  honored  by  seals  of  this  de- 
scription, as  abundant  in  number  and  decided  in  character  as  many  by 
whom  they  are  disowned  can  boast. 

We  hesitate  not  to  say,  then,  that  all  who  are  duly  qualified  with 
gifts  and  graces  for  the  work,  and  are  laboring  simply  and  zealously, 
with  a  single  eye  to  the  Divine  glory,  in  erecting  this  spiritual  building, 
adding  immortal  and  living  stones  to  this  building,  are  duly  authorized 
and  accredited  workmen,  and  will  assuredly  at  last,  if  found  "  faithful 
unto  death, "  receive  of  him  the  promised  reward  ;  for  as  he  employs 
the  workmen,  he  also  pays  them  their  wages.  Souls  for  their  hire, 
seals  to  their  ministry,  constitute  their  present  recompense ;  and  by- 
and-by,  in  the  presence  of  assembled  worlds,  when  the  chief  Shepherd, 


74  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

when  the  Master-builder  shall  appear  for  that  purpose,  "  a  crown  of 
glory,  that  fadeth  not  away."  And  what  mitred  abbot,  what  crosiered 
ecclesiastic,  what  titled  dignitary,  what  impurpled  prelate,  does  he  need 
to  envy,  to  whom,  though  persecuted  and  despised  on  earth,  his  Lord 
shall  say,  "  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant,  enter  thou  into  the 
joy  of  thy  Lord  ?  "  "  Well  done  !  "  —  oh  !  it  shall  ring  through  all 
the  regions  of  the  blest ;  and  the  joy  which  it  awakens  shall  infinitely 
more  than  compensate  for  a  life  of  ceaseless  sacrifice  and  toil,  though 
a  thousand  such  lives  were  compressed  into  one,  and  that  one  life 
lengthened  out  to  the  days  of  Methuselah. 

3.  Christ  is  the  foundation,  Christ  is  the  architect ;  and  now,  thirdly, 
Christ  is  the  proprietor  of  the  Church :  "  On  this  rock,"  he  says,  "  I 
will  build  my  Church." 

He  calls  it  his.  Every  living  stone  in  that  building  is  the  purchase 
of  his  blood  as  well  as  the  work  of  his  hand,  given  to  him  by  his 
Father,  in  covenant  engagements,  for  this  express  purpose,  that  from 
such  materials  he  might  construct  "  a  glorious  church,"  and  finally 
"  present  it  to  himself  without  spot  or  blemish,  or  any  such  thing." 
We  talk  of  this  church  and  of  that,  of  your  church  and  of  my  church, 
of  the  Church  of  England, and  the  Church  of  L'eland,and  the  Church 
of  Scotland ;  but  the  true  church  is  the  Church  of  Christ.  It  is  the 
property  of  no  party,  of  no  country,  of  no  body,  of  no  class  or  com- 
munity or  nation  under  heaven,  but  the  property  of  Christ,  composed 
of  the  holy  and  the  excellent  from  among  them  all,  and  to  be  allowed 
and  recognized  and  honored  as  his  property,  when  all  the  communities 
who  have  laid  claim  to  it  on  earth  shall  have  ceased  for  ever  to  exist, 
when  he  shall  come  to  be  "  glorified  in  his  saints,  and  admired  in  all 
them  that  believe." 

4.  Finall}^,  while  Christ  is  the  foundation,  the  architect,  and  the  pro- 
prietor of  the  church,  he  is  also  the  guarantee  of  its  stability :  "  On 
this  rock,"  he  says,  "  I  will  build  my  cljurch ;  and  the  gates  of  hell 
shall  not  prevail  against  it." 

By  "  the  gates  of  hell"  are  meant  the  powers  of  darkness,  the  thrones, 
the  principalities,  the  princedoms,  tlie  dominations  of  the  infernal  world 
and  all  the  forces  that  superstition,  infidelity,  and  antichrist,  in  all  their 
varied  forms,  can  supply  and  league  with  them.  These  powers  of  dark- 
ness shall  not  prevail  against  it.  Let  them  combine,  let  them  make  the 
effort ;  let  them  combine  with  all  their  art  and  cunning  and  sophistry, 
as  they  ever  have  done,  as  they  are  doing  now,  as  they  will  still  con- 
tinue to  do ;  let  them  do  the  utmost  which  ingenuity  can  suggest,  which 
pohcy  can  approve,  which  power  can  execute  ;  let  them  summon  learn- 
ing to  their  aid,  and  array  themselves  with  the  decrees  of  councils  and 


Christ's  chobch.  75 

the  acts  of  legislation ;  let  them  nerve  afresh  the  old  arm  of  persecu- 
tion ;  let  them  open  again  the  dungeons  of  the  Inquisition ;  let  them 
kindle  anew  the  iires  of  Smithfield  ;  let  them  ply  their  racks  ;  let  them 
thunder  then-  anathemas  and  mutter  their  curses ;  as  in  time  past,  so 
in  time  to  come,  all  shall  prove  impotent  and  vain;  hke  the  storm,  that 
only  roots  the  monarch  of  the  forest  still  further  in  the  soil,  or  the  bil- 
low, that  leaves  unmoved  the  rock  at  whose  base  it  has  broken. 

"  What  though  the  galea  of  hell  withstand, 
Yet  must  this  building  rise." 

"The  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  agamst  it."  They  never  have 
prevailed  against  it ;  they  may  have  seemed  to  do  so  for  a  season,  but 
they  never  have  in  reality.  Is  the  sun  plucked  from  the  firmament 
because  sometimes  it  is  obscured  by  clouds  ?  Are  stars  quenched  in 
their  orbit,  because  there  are  nights  of  darkness  in  which  they  fail  to 
shine  ?  Clouds  sometimes  have  hung  around  the  Church,  and  there 
have  been  periods  in  her  story  when  the  enemy  has  seemed  to  triumph ; 
but  those  periods,  like  the  summer  cloud,  have  passed  away,  and  from 
that  temporary  gloom  the  Church  has  emerged  with  augmented  splen- 
dor. Did  they  prevail  against  the  Church  of  Calvary  ?  They  thought 
to  do  so ;  they  imagined  that  they  had  ;  and  all  seemed  lost,  when  the 
stone  was  rolled  to  the  door  of  the  sepulchre,  when  the  seal  was  fixed 
and  the  Roman  guard  was  set.  But  see  what  "  a  show  he  made  of 
them  openly,"  and  how  he  triumphed  over  them  in  his  cross,  when, 
having  burst  the  barriers  of  the  tomb,  "  He  ascended  up  on  high, 
leading  captivity  captive  ;  "  and  as  he  entered  the  celestial  world  amid 
the  anthems  and  hallelujahs  of  cherubim  and  seraphim,  and  countless 
myriads  of  "  the  morning  stars,"  the  powers  of  darkness  were  seen 
prostrate  and  crushed  beneath  his  feet,  and  writhing  in  anguish  for 
their  previous  overthrow.  Did  they  prevail  against  it  at  the  Reforma- 
tion, with  their  racks,  and  their  dungeons,  and  their  bulls  and  all  their 
instruments  of  torture  ?  They  seemed  to  think  they  had ;  but  like 
the  phoenix,  the  Church  has  risen  from  the  flame,  and,  in  reaction 
against  the  powers  of  darkness,  has  been  augmented  and  gaining 
strength  from  that  period  to  the  present  hour.  Do  they  now  ?  Are 
the  powers  of  darkness  prevailing  against  the  Church  in  these  days  in 
which  we  Hve  ?  They  struggle,  they  boast,  they  utter  great  swelling 
words  of  vanity,  but  do  they  prevail  ?  Where  is  the  evidence  ? 
Where  is  the  proof?  Is  it  in  the  twenty-seven  million  copies  of  the 
word  of  God,  which  the  Bible  Society  alone  has  printed  and  sent 
abroad  in  every  tongue  and  dialect  of  the  world's  vast  family  ?  Is  it 
in  the  noble  army  of  missionaries,  who  are  gathering  materials  for  this 

J 


76  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

building  from  almost  every  region  under  heaven,  and  adorning  the  goodly 
structure  Avith  every  variety  of  color  the  human  countenance  presents  ? 
Is  it  in  the  planting  of  missionary  churches  abroad,  or  in  the  idols 
abandoned  by  their  former  worshippers,  that  grace  our  missionary 
museum  at  home  ? 

And  if  "  the  gates  of  hell"  have  never  yet  prevailed,  if  the  gates 
of  hell  are  not  prevailing  now,  shall  they  ever  prevail  ?  No ;  they 
never  shall.  The  truth  of  prophecy,  the  faithfulness  of  God,  the  cer- 
tainty of  the  covenant,  the  rectitude  of  the  Divine  administration,  the 
atonement  of  Christ,  the  value  of  his  blood,  the  privileges  of  his  inter- 
cession, all  forbid.  Instability  there  maybe  in  all  other  things  :  "  the 
mountains  may  depart,  and  the  hills  may  be  removed  ;  "  thrones  may 
totter,  the  heavens  may  be  wrapped  together  as  a  scroll,  the  elements 
may  "  melt  with  fervent  heat,"  the  earth  and  all  its  works  may  "  be 
burned  up ; "  palaces  and  pyramids,  the  noblest  works  of  man,  the 
Alps  and  the  Andes,  the  mightiest  works  of  God,  may  only  serve  as 
fuel  to  the  general  flame,  and  ruin  once  more  drive  her  ploughshare 
over  the  creation ;  but  the  word  of  our  God  shall  endure  for  ever ;  and 
ere  the  powers  of  darkness,  ere  "  the  gates  of  hell  shall  prevail  against 
the  Church,"  the  pillars  that  support  the  eternal  throne  must  fall,  and 
the  being  of  a  God  be  blotted  out  from  the  universe  which  he  has 
made. 


SERMON  YI. 

INDUSTRY. 
BY  REV.  JAMES  HAMILTON. 

*'  Not  slothful  in  business."  —  Romans,  xii.  11. 

Two  things  are  very  certain,  —  that  we  have  all  got  a  work  to  do, 
and  are  all,  more  or  less,  indisposed  to  do  it :  In  other  words,  every 
man  has  a  calling,  and  most  men  have  a  greater  or  less  amount  of  in- 
dolence, which  disinclines  them  for  the  work  of  that  calling.  Many 
men  would  have  liked  the  gospel  all  the  better,  if  it  had  entirely 
repealed  the  sentence,  "  In  the  sweat  of  thy  brow  shalt  thou  eat  thy 
bread  ; "  had  it  proclaimed  a  final  emancipation  from  industry,  and 
turned  our  world  into  a  merry  play-ground  or  luxurious  dormitory. 
But  this  is  not  what  the  gospel  does.     It  does  not  abolish  labor  ;  it 


INDUSTRY.  77 

gives  it  a  new  and  a  nobler  aspect.  The  gospel  abolishes  labor  much 
in  the  same  way  as  it  abolishes  death  ;  it  leaves  the  thing,  but  changes 
its  nature.  The  gospel  sweetens  the  believer's  work ;  it  gives  him  new 
motives  for  performing  it.  The  gospel  dignifies  toil :  it  transforms  it 
from  the  drudgery  of  the  workhouse  or  the  penitentiary,  to  the  affec- 
tionate offices  and  joyful  services  of  the  fire-side  and  the  family  circle. 
It  asks  us  to  do  for  the  sake  of  Christ  many  things  which  we  were  once 
compelled  to  bear  as  a  portion  of  the  curse,  and  which  worldly  men  per- 
form for  selfish  and  secondary  reasons.  "  Whatsoever  ye  do  in  word 
or  deed,  do  all  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  "  Wives,  submit 
yourselves  unto  your  own  husbands,  as  it  is  fit  in  the  Lord."  "  Chil- 
dren, obey  your  parents  in  all  things,  for  this  is  well-pleasing  unto  the 
Lord."  "  Servants,  obey  in  all  things  your  masters  according  to  the 
flesh,  not  with  eye-service,  as  men-pleasers,  but  in  singleness  of  heart, 
fearing  God ;  and  whatsoever  ye  do,  do  it  heartily  as  to  the  Lord  and 
not  unto  men,  knowing  that  of  the  Lord  ye  shall  receive  the  reward 
of  the  inheritance,  for  ye  serve  the  Lord  Christ."  The  gospel  has  not 
superseded  diligence.  "  Study  to  be  quiet  and  to  do  your  own  busi- 
ness, and  to  work  with  your  own  hands,  as  we  commanded  you."  "  If 
any  man  will  not  work,  neither  let  him  eat."  It  is  mentioned  as  almost 
the  climax  of  sin,  "And  withal  they  learn  to  be  idle,  wandering  about 
from  house  to  house  ;  and  not  only  idle,  but  tattlers  also,  and  busy- 
bodies,  speaking  things  which  they  ought  not :  "  as  on  the  other  hand, 
the  healthy  and  right-conditioned  state  of  a  soul  is  "  not  slothful  in 
business,  fervent  in  spirit,  serving  the  Lord." 

I.  This  precept  is  violated  by  those  who  have  no  business  at  all. 
By  the  bounty  of  God's  providence,  some  are  in  such  a  situation  that 
they  do  not  need  to  toil  for  a  subsistence  ;  they  go  to  bed  when  they 
please,  and  get  up  when  they  can  sleep  no  longer,  and  they  do  with 
themselves  whatever  they  like  ;  and  though  we  dare  not  say  that  their's 
is  the  happiest  life,  it  certainly  is  the  easiest.  But  it  will  neither  be 
a  lawful  life  nor  a  happy  one,  unless  it  have  some  work  in  hand,  some 
end  in  view.  Those  of  you  who  arc  familiar  with  the  sea-shore,  may 
have  seen  attached  to  the  inundated  reef,  a  creature,  whether  a  plant 
or  an  animal  you  could  scarcely  tell,  rooted  to  the  rock  as  a  plant  might 
be,  and  twirling  its  long  tentacula  as  an  animal  would  do.  This  plant- 
animal's  life  is  somewhat  monotonous,  for  it  has  nothing  to  do  but  grow 
and  twirl  its  feelers,  float  in  the  tide,  or  fold  itself  up  on  its  foot-stalk 
when  that  tide  has  receded,  for  months  and  years  together.  Now, 
would  it  not  be  very  dismal  to  be  transformed  into  a  zoophyte  ?  Would 
it  not  be  an  awful  punishment,  with  your  human  soul  still  in  you,  to  be 


78  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

anchored  to  a  rock,  able  to  do  nothing  but  spin  about  your  arms  or  fold 
them  up  again ;  and  knowing  no  variety,  except  when  the  receding 
ocean  left  you  in  the  dayhght,  or  the  returning  waters  plunged  you  into 
the  green  depths  again,  or  the  sweeping  tide  brought  you  the  prize  of 
a  young  periwinkle  or  an  invisible  star-fish  ? 

But  what  better  is  the  life  you  are  spontaneously  leading  ?  What 
greater  variety  marks  your  existence,  than  chequers  the  hfe  of  the  sea- 
anemone  ?  Does  not  one  day  float  over  you  like  another,  just  as  the 
tide  floats  over  it,  and  find  you  much  the  same,  and  leave  you  vegeta- 
tiug  still  ?  Are  ;^ou  more  useful  ?  What  real  service  to  others  did 
you  render  yesterday  ?  What  tangible  amount  of  occupation  did  you 
overtake  in  the  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  hours  of  which  the  last 
week  consisted  ?  And  what  higher  end  in  living  have  you  than  that 
polypus  ?  You  go  through  certain  mechanical  routines  of  rising,  and 
dressing,  and  visiting,  and  dining,  and  going  to  sleep  again  ;  and  are 
a  little  roused  from  your  usual  lethargy  by  the  arrival  of  a  friend,  or 
the  effort  needed  to  write  some  note  of  ceremony.  But  as  it  curtseys 
in  the  waves,  and  vibrates  its  exploring  arms,  and  gorges  some  dainty 
medusa,  the  sea-anemone  goes  through  nearly  the  same  round  of  pur- 
suits and  enjoyments  with  your  intelligent  and  immortal  self.  Is  this  a 
life  for  a  rational  and  responsible  creature  to  lead  ? 

II.  But  this  precept  is  also  violated  by  those  who  are  diligent  in 
trifles, — whose  activity  is  a  busy  idleness.  You  may  be  very  earnest 
in  a  pursuit  which  is  utterly  beneath  your  prerogative  as  an  intelligent 
creature,  and  your  high  destination  as  an  immortal  being.  Pursuits 
which  are  perfectly  proper  in  creatures  destitute  of  reason,  may  be 
very  culpable  in  those  who  not  only  have  reason,  but  are  capable  of 
enjoyments  above  the  range  of  reason  itself.  We  this  instant  imagined 
a  man  retaining  all  his  consciousness  transformed  into  a  zoophyte.  Let 
us  imagine  another  similar  transformation ;  fancy  that,  instead  of  a 
polypus,  you  were  changed  into  a  swallow.  There  you  have  a  creature 
abundantly  busy,  up  in  the  early  morning,  for  ever  on  the  wing,  as 
graceful  and  sprightly  in  his  flight  as  tasteful  in  the  haunts  which  he 
selects.  Look  at  him,  zigzagging  over  the  clover  field,  skimming  the 
limpid  lake,  whisking  round  the  steeple,  or  dancing  gaily  in  the  sky- 
Behold  him  in  high  spirits,  shrieking  out  his  ecstasy  as  he  has  bolted 
a  dragon-fly,  or  darted  through  the  arrow-slits  of  the  old  turret,  or 
performed  some  other  feat  of  hirundine  agility.  And  notice  how  he 
pays  his  morning  visits,  alighting  elegantly  on  some  house-top,  and 
twittering  politely  by  turns  to  the  swallow  on  either  side  of  him,  and 


INDUSTRY.  79 

after  five  minutes'  conversation,  off  and  away  to  call  for  liis  friend  at 
tlie  castle.  And  now  he  lias  gone  upon  Ms  travels,  gone  to  spend  the 
winter  at  Rome  or  Naples,  to  visit  Egypt  or  the  Holy  Land,  or  perform 
some  more  recherche  pilgrimage  to  Spain 'or  the  coast  of  Barbary. 
And  when  he  comes  home  next  April,  sure  enough  he  has  been  abroad  ; 
—  charming  climate,  —  highly  deHghted  with  the  cicadas  in  Italy,  and 
the  bees  on  Hymettus  ;  —  locusts  in  Afi'ica  rather  scarce  this  season  ; 
but  upon  the  whole  much  pleased  with  his  trip,  and  returned  in  high 
health  and  spirits.  Now,  dear  friends,  this  is  a  very  proper  life  for  a 
swallow,  but  is  it  a  life  for  you  ?  To  flit  about  from  house  to  house ; 
to  pay  futile  visits,  where,  if  the  talk  were  written  down,  it  would 
amount  to  little  more  than  the  chattering  of  a  swallow ;  to  bestow  all 
your  thoughts  on  graceful  attitudes,  and  nimble  movements,  and  pol- 
ished attire  ;  to  roam  from  land  to  land  with  so  httle  information  in 
your  head,  or  so  little  taste  for  the  sublime  or  beautiful  in  your  soul, 
that  could  a  swallow  publish  his  travels,  and  did  you  publish  yours,  we 
should  probably  find  the  one  a  counterpart  of  the  other  ;  the  winged 
traveller  enlarging  on  the  discomforts  of  his  nest,  and  the  wingless  one, 
on  the  miseries  of  his  hotel  or  his  chateau ;  you  describing  the  places 
of  amusement,  or  enlarging  on  the  vastness  of  the  country,  and  the 
abundance  of  the  game  ;  and  your  rival  eloquent  on  the  selfsame 
things.  Oh !  it  is  a  thought,  not  ridiculous,  but  appalling.  If  the 
earthly  history  of  some  of  our  brethren  were  written  down  ;  if  a  faith- 
ful record  were  kept  of  the  way  they  spend  their  time ;  if  all  the  hours 
of  idle  vacancy  or  idler  occupancy  were  put  together,  and  the  very 
small  amount  of  useful  diUgence  deducted,  the  life  of  a  bird  or  quadru- 
ped would  be  a  nobler  one  ;  more  worthy  of  its  powers  and  more  equal 
to  its  Creator's  end  in  forming  it.  Such  a  register  is  kept.  Though 
the  trifler  does  not  chronicle  his  own  vain  words  and  wasted  hours,  they 
chronicle  themselves.  They  find  their  mdelible  place  in  that  book  of 
remembrance  with  which  human  hand  cannot  tamper,  and  from  which 
no  erasure  save  one  can  blot  them.  They  are  noted  in  the  memory 
of  God.  And  when  once  this  life  of  wondrous  opportunities  and  awful 
advantages  is  over  —  when  the  twenty  or  fifty  years  of  probation  are 
iled  away  —  when  mortal  existence,  with  its  faculties  for  personal  im- 
provement and  serviceableness  to  others,  is  gone  beyond  recall— when 
the  trifler  looks  back  to  the  long  pilgrimage,  with  all  the  doors  of  hope 
and  doors  of  usefulness,  past  which  he  skipped  in  his  frisky  forgetful- 
ness  —  what  anguish  will  it  move  to  think  that  he  was  gambolled 
through  such  a  world  without  salvation  to  himself,  without  any  real 
benefit  to  his  brethren,  a  busy  trifler,  a  vivacious  idler,  a  clever  fool ! 


80  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

III.  Those  violate  this  precept  v;\xo  have  a  lawful  calling,  a  proper 
business,  but  are  slothful  in  it.  When  people  are  in  business  for  them- 
selves, they  are  in  less  risk  of  transgressing  this  injunction :  though 
even  there  it  sometimes  happens  that  the  hand  is  not  diligent  enough 
to  make  its  owner  rich.  But  it  is  when  engaged  in  business,  not  for 
oui'selves,  but  for  others,  or  for  God,  that  we  are  in  greatest  danger 
of  neglecting  this  rule.  The  servant,  who  has  no  pleasure  in  his  work, 
who  does  no  more  than  wages  can  buy,  or  a  legal  agreement  enforce  ; 
the  shopman,  who  does  not  enter  con  amore  into  his  employer's  inter- 
est, and  bestir  himself  to  extend  his  trade  as  he  would  strive  were  the 
concern  his  own ;  the  scholar,  who  trifles  when  his  teacher's  eye  is 
elsewhere,  and  who  is  content  if  he  can  only  learn  enough  to  escape 
disgrace ;  the  teacher,  who  is  satisfied  if  he  can  only  convey  a  decent 
quantum  of  instruction,  and  who  does  not  labor  for  the  mental  expan- 
sion and  spiritual  well-being  of  his  pupils,  as  he  would  for  those  of  his 
own  children  ;  the  magistrate  or  civic  functionary,  who  is  only  careful 
to  escape  pubUc  censure,  and  who  does  not  labor  to  make  the  commu- 
nity richer,  or  happier,  or  better  for  his  administration :  the  minister, 
who  can  give  his  energies  to  another  cause  than  the  cause  of  Christ, 
and  neglect  his  Master's  business  in  minding  his  own  ;  every  one,  in 
short,  who  performs  the  work  which  God  or  his  brethren  have  given 
him  to  do  in  a  hireling  and  perfunctory  manner,  is  a  violater  of  the 
divine  injunction,  "  Not  slothful  in  business."  There  are  some  per- 
sons of  a  dull  and  languid  turn.  They  trail  sluggishly  through  life, 
as  if  some  painful  viscus,  some  adhesive  slime  were  clogging  every 
movement,  and  making  their  snail-path  a  waste  of  their  very  substance. 
They  do  nothing  with  that  healthy  alacrity,  that  gleesome  energy 
which  bespeaks  a  sound  mind  even  more  than  a  vigorous  body ;  but 
they  drag  themselves  to  the  inevitable  task  with  remonstrating  reluc- 
tance, as  if  every  joint  were  set  in  a  socket  of  torture,  or  as  if  they 
expected  the  quick  flesh  to  cleave  to  the  next  implement  of  industry 
they  handled.  Having  no  wholesome  love  to  work,  no  joyous  delight 
in  duty,  they  do  every  thing  grudgingly,  in  the  most  superficial  man- 
ner, and  at  the  latest  moment.  Others  there  are,  who,  if  you  find 
them  at  their  post,  you  will  find  them  dozing  at  it.  They  are  a  sort 
of  perpetual  somnambulists,  walking  through  their  sleep ;  moving  in  a 
constant  mystery  ;  looking  for  their  faculties,  and  forgetting  what  they 
are  looking  for ;  not  able  to  find  their  work,  and  Avhen  they  have  found 
their  work  not  able  to  find  their  hands  ;  doing  every  thing  dreamily, 
and  therefore  every  thing  confusedly  and  incompletely ;  their  work  a 
dream,  their  sleep  a  dream; not  repose,  not  refreshment,  but  a  slum- 
brous vision  of  rest,  a  dreamy  query  concerning  sleep ;  too  late  for 


INDUSTRY.  81 

every  thing,  taking  their  passage  when  the  ship  has  sailed,  insuring 
their  property  when  the  house  is  burned,  locking  the  door  when  the 
goods  are  stolen  — men,  whose  bodies  seem  to  have  started  in  the  race 
of  existence  before  their  minds  were  ready,  and  who  are  always  gar 
zing  out  vacantly  as  if  they  expected  their  wits  were  coming  up  by 
the  next  arrival.  But,  besides  the  sloths  and  somnambulists,  there  is 
a  third  class —  the  day-dreamers.  These  are  a  very  mournful,  because 
a  self  deceiving  generation.  Like  a  man  who  has  his  windows  glazed 
with  yellow  glass,  and  who  can  fancy  a  golden  sunshine,  or  a  mellow 
autumn  on  the  fields  even  when  a  wintry  sleet  is  sweeping  over  them, 
the  day-dreamer  lives  in  an  elysium  of  his  own  creating.  With  a  foot 
on  either  side  of  the  fire — with  his  chin  on  his  bosom,  and  the  wrong 
end  of  the  book  turned  towards  him,  he  can  pursue  his  self-complacent 
musings  till  he  imagines  himself  a  traveller  in  unknown  lands  —  the 
explorer  of  Central  Africa  —  the  solver  of  all  the  unsolved  problems 
in  science  —  the  author  of  some  unprecedented  poem  at  which  the 
wide  world  is  wondering  —  or  something  so  stupendous  that  he  even 
begins  to  quail  at  his  own  glory.  The  misery  is,  that  whilst  nothing  is 
done  towards  attaining  the  greatness,  his  luxurious  imagination  takes 
its  possession  for  granted ;  and  with  his  feet  on  the  fender,  he  fancies 
himself  already  on  the  highest  pinnacle  of  fame ;  and  a  still  greater 
misery  is,  that  the  time  thus  wasted  in  unprofitable  musings,  if  spent 
in  honest  application  and  downright  working,  would  go  very  far  to 
carry  him  where  his  sublime  imagination  fain  would  be.  It  would  not 
be  easy  to  estimate  the  good  of  which  day-dreams  have  defrauded  the 
world.  Some  of  the  finest  intellects  have  exhaled  away  in  this  slug- 
gish evaporation,  and  left  no  vestige  on  earth  except  the  dried  froth  — 
the  obscure  film  which  survives  the  drivel  of  vanished  dreams ;  and 
others  have  done  just  enough  to  show  how  important  they  would  have 
been  had  they  awaked  sooner,  or  kept  longer  awake  at  once.  Sir 
James  Mackintosh  was  one  of  the  latter  class.      His  castle-buildinsr 

o 

"  never  amounted  to  conviction ;  in  other  words,  these  fancies  have 
never  influenced  my  actions  ;  but  I  must  confess  that  they  have  often 
been  as  steady  and  of  as  regular  recurrence  as  conviction  itself;  and 
that  they  have  sometimes  created  a  little  faint  expectation,  a  state  of 
mind  in  which  my  wonder  that  they  should  be  realized  would  not  be  so 
great  as  it  rationally  ought  to  be."  Perhaps  no  one  in  modern  times 
has  been  capable  of  more  sagacious  or  comprehensive  generalization  in 
those  sciences  which  hold  court  in  the  high  places  of  human  intellect 
than  he  ;  but  a  few  hints  and  a  fragment  of  finished  work  are  all  that 
remain.  Coleridge  never  sufficiently  woke  up  from  his  long  day-dream 
to  articulate  distmctly  any  of  the  glorious  visions  which  floated  before 


82  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

his  majestic  fancy,  some  of  wliich  we  reallj  believe  that  the  world 
would  have  been  the  wiser  for  knowing.  And,  returning  from  secular 
philosophy  to  matters  of  Christian  practice,  have  you  never  met  those 
whose  superior  gifts  would  have  made  them  eminently  useful,  and  who 
had  designs  of  usefulness,  perhaps  plilUuithropic  schemes  of  pecuhar 
ingenuity  and  beauty,  but  who  are  passing  away  from  earth,  if  they 
have  not  passed  away  already,  without  actually  attempting  any  tangi- 
ble good  ?  And  yet  so  sincere  are  they  in  their  own  inoperative  be- 
nevolence —  so  hard  do  they  toil  and  sweat  in  their  own  Nephelococ- 
cy^a,  that  nothing  could  surprise  them  more  than  the  question  — 
"  What  do  ye  more  than  others  ?  "  unless  it  were  their  own  inabUity 
to  point  out  the  solid  product  and  lay  their  hands  on  the  actual  results. 

To  avoid  this  guilt  and  wretchedness  — 

1.  Have  a  business  In  which  diligence  is  lawful  and  desirable.  There 
are  some  pursuits  which  do  not  deserve  to  be  called  a  business,  ^ro- 
pus  was  the  king  of  Macedonia,  and  it  was  his  favorite  pursuit  to  make 
lanterns.  Probably  he  was  very  good  at  making  them,  but  his  proper 
business  was  to  be  a  king,  and  therefore  the  more  lanterns  he  made, 
the  worse  king  he  was.  And  if  your  work  be  a  high  calhng,  you  must 
not  dissipate  your  energies  on  trifles,  on  things  which,  lawful  in  them- 
selves, are  still  as  irrelevant  to  you  as  lamp-making  is  irrelevant  to  a  king. 
Perhaps  some  here  are  without  any  specific  calling.  They  have  neither 
a  farm  nor  a  merchandise  to  look  after.  They  have  no  household  to  care 
for,  no  children  to  train  and  educate,  no  official  duties  to  engross  their 
time  ;  they  have  an  independent  fortune,  and  live  at  large.  My  friends, 
I  congratulate  you  on  your  wealth,  your  liberal  education,  your  position 
in  society,  and  your  abundant  leisure.  It  is  in  your  power  to  be  the 
benefactors  of  your  generation  ;  you  are  in  circumstances  to  do  an  em- 
inent service  for  God,  and  finish  some  great  work  before  your  going 
hence.  What  that  work  shall  be  I  do  not  attempt  to  indicate  ;  I  rath- 
er leave  it  for  your  own  investigation  and  discovery.  Every  one  has 
his  own  hne  of  things.  Howard  chose  one  path,  and  Wilberforce  an- 
other ;  Harlan  Page  chose  one,  and  Brainerd  Tajdor  another.  Mrs. 
Fletcher  did  one  work.  Lady  Glenorchy  another,  and  Mary  Jane  Gra- 
ham a  third.  Every  one  did  the  work  for  which  God  had  best  fitted 
them,  but  each  made  that  work  their  business.  They  gave  themselves 
to  it ;  they  not  only  did  it,  by  the  bye,  but  they  selected  it  and  set 
themselves  in  earnest  to  it,  not  parenthetically,  but  on  very  purpose  — 
the  problem  of  their  Uves  —  for  Christ's  sake  and  in  Christ's  service, 
and  held  themselves  as  bound  to  do  it  as  if  they  had  been  by  himself 
expressly  engaged  for  it.  And,  brethren,  you  must  do  the  same. 
Those  of  you  who  do  not  need  to  toil  for  your  daily  bread,  your  very 


INDUSTRY.  83 

leisure  is  a  hint  what  the  Lord  would  have  you  to  do.  As  you  have 
no  business  of  your  own,  he  would  have  you  devote  yourselves  to  his 
business.  He  would  have  you  carry  on,  in  some  of  its  manifold  depart- 
ments, that  work  which  he  came  to  earth  to  do.  He  would  have  you 
go  about  his  Father's  business  as  he  was  wont  to  be  about  it.  And  if 
you  still  persist  in  living  to  yourselves,  you  cannot  be  happy.  You 
cannot  spend  all  your  days  in  making  pin-cushions  or  reading  newspa- 
pers, or  loitering  in  club-rooms  and  coffee  houses,  and  yet  be  happy. 
If  you  profess  to  follow  Christ,  this  is  not  a  Christian  life.  .  It  is  not  a 
conscientious,  and  so  it  cannot  be  a  comfortable  life.  And  if  the  pin- 
cushion or  the  newspaper  fail  to  make  you  happy,  remember  the  rea- 
son —  very  good  as  relaxations,  ever  so  great  an  amount  of  these  things 
can  never  be  a  business,  and  "  wist  ye  not  that  you  should  be  about 
your  Father's  business  ?" 

2.  Having  made  a  wise  and  deliberate  selection  of  a  business,  go  on 
with  it,  go  through  with  it.  Persevering  mediocrity  is  much  more  re- 
spectable and  unspeakably  more  useful  than  talented  inconstancy.  In 
the  heathery  turf  you  will  often  find  a  plant  chiefly  remarkable  for  its 
peculiar  roots  ;  from  the  main  stem  down  to  the  minutest  fibre,  you  will 
find  them  all  abruptly  terminate,  as  if  shorn  or  bitten  off,  and  the  silly 
superstition  of  the  country  people  alleges,  that  once  on  a  time  it  was  a 
plant  of  singular  potency  for  healing  all  sorts  of  maladies,  and  therefore 
the  great  enemy  of  man  in  his  malignity  bit  off  the  roots  in  which  its 
virtues  resided.  This  plant,  with  this  quaint  history,  is  a  very  good 
emblem  of  many  well-meaning  but  little-effecting  people.  They  might 
be  defined  as  radidbus  proemorsis,  or  rather  inceptis  succisis.  The 
efficacy  of  every  good  work  lies  in  its  completion,  and  all  their  good  works 
terminate  abruptly  and  are  left  off  unfinished.  The  devil  frustrates 
their  efficacy  by  cutting  off  their  ends ;  their  unprofitable  history  is 
made  up  of  plans  and  projects,  schemes  of  usefulness  that  were  never 
gone  about,  and  magnificent  undertakings  that  were  never  carried  for- 
ward ;  societies  that  were  set  agoing,  then  left  to  shift  for  themselves, 
and  forlorn  beings,  who  for  a  time  were  taken  up  and  instructed,  and 
just  when  they  were  beginning  to  show  symptoms  of  improvement,  wore 
cast  on  the  world  again. 

But  others  there  are,  who  before  beginning  to  build  count  the  cost, 
and  having  collected  their  materials  and  laid  their  foundations  deep  and 
broad,  go  on  to  rear  their  structure,  indifferent  to  more  tempting 
schemes  and  sublimer  enterprises  subsequently  suggested.  The  man 
who  provides  a  home  for  a  poor  neighbor,  is  a  greater  benefactor  of  the 
poor  than  he  who  lays  the  foundation  of  a  stately  almshouse  and  never 
finishes  a  single  apartment.     The  persevering  teacher  who  guides  one 


84  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

child  into  the  saving  knowledge  of  Christ  and  leads  him  on  to  establish- 
ed habits  of  piety,  is  a  more  useful  man  than  his  friend  who  gathers  in 
a  room-full  of  ragged  children,  and  after  a  few  weeks  of  waning  zeal, 
turns  them  all  adrift  on  the  streets  again.  The  patriot  who  set  his 
heart  on  abolishing  the  slave-trade,  and  after  twenty  years  of  rebuffs 
and  revilings,  of  tantalized  hope  and  disappointed  eflfort,  at  last  succeed- 
ed, achieved  a  greater  work  than  if  he  had  set  afloat  all  possible  schemes 
of  philanthropy,  and  then  left  them,  one  after  the  other,  to  sink  or 
swim.  So  short  is  life,  that  we  can  afford  to  lose  none  of  it  in  abortive 
undertakings  ;  and  once  we  are  assured  that  a  given  work  is  one  which 
:t  is  worth  our  while  to  do,  it  is  true  wisdom  to  set  about  it  instantly  ; 
and  once  we  have  begun  it,  it  is  true  economy  to  finish  it. 


SERMON    VII. 

PAUL   BEFORE  FELIX. 
BY    DANIEL    MOORE,    M.    A, 


"  And  as  he  reasoned  of  righteouaness,  temperance,  and  judgment  to  come,  Felix  trembled,  and  au- 
■wered.  Go  thy  way  for  this  time  :  when  I  have  a  convenient  season,  I  will  send  for  thee." 

Acts  xxit.  25. 

The  Jews  at  Thessalonica  spoke  with  much  more  truth  than  they 
were  aware  of,  when,  in  describing  the  first  introduction  of  Christianity 
into  Europe,  they  exclaimed,  "  These  that  have  turned  the  world  up- 
side down  have  come  hither  also."  Christianity  did  turn  the  world 
upside  down ;  and  that  not  before  it  needed  turning.  Everywhere 
around  were  seen  the  tokens  of  spiritual  disorder :  men  were  judged  of 
by  false  standards,  actions  were  weighed  in  deceitful  balances,  laws  were 
framed  on  erroneous  principles,  and  every  thing  denoted  that  the  moral 
world  had  flown  off  from  its  centre,  or,  under  the  action  of  some  strange 
disturbances,  had  travelled  far  out  of  its  appointed  orbit.  The  time 
was  come,  therefore,  when  it  was  needful  that  a  change  should  pass 
over  the  spirits  of  men  ;  that  there  should  be,  not  a  revolution  of  thought 
alone,  but  a  recasting  of  language.  Moral  qualities  were  losing  all 
their  distinctness,  by  being  called  out  of  their  proper  names  ;  men  de- 
lighted "  to  call  evil  good,  and  good  evil ;  to  put  darkness  for  fight, 
and  fight  for  darkness ;  to  put  bitter  for  sweet,  and  sweet  for  bitter." 


PAUL   BEFORE   FELIX.  85 

But  Christianity  gave  mankind  a  new  vocabulary,  taught  them  the 
right  use  of  language,  and  made  words  to  become  (what  they  could 
scarcely  be  said  to  have  been  before)  the  true  representatives  of 
thoughts  and  things.  No  purpose,  either  in  politics  or  morals,  seems 
to  be  answered  by  such  conventions,  as  that  a  great  general  should  or- 
dinarily mean  a  great  curse ;  that  the  most  terrific  scourge  which  can 
afflict  humanity  should  be  desci'ibed  as  the  glory  of  a  nation's  arms  ; 
that  we  should  call  a  man  high-spirited,  when  we  mean  to  say  he  is  re- 
sentful ;  or  proclaim  him  destitute  of  spirit,  because  he  aims  to  resem- 
ble the  meek  and  lowly  Jesus.  Delusions  like  these,  however,  never 
"want  either  for  advocates  among  teachers,  or  partisans  among  the 
taught.  In  every  age  there  are  to  be  found  those  who  would  "  say  to 
the  seers,  see  not,  and  to  the  prophets,  prophesy  not  unto  us  right 
things  ;  speak  unto  us  smooth  things,  prophesy  deceits  ;  "  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  there  have  rarely  been  wanting  prophets,  who,  in  comjjH- 
ance  with  such  infatuated  request,  have  been  willing  to  prophesy  their 
people  into  a  smooth  destruction,  and  have  been  careful  only  that  they 
should  die  an  easy  death. 

Not  so,  however,  the  great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles  ;  he  would  be  a 
prophet  in  chains,  and,  before  those  "  in  high  places,"  was  bold  to  de- 
nounce "  spiritual  wickedness."  He  would  neither  prophesy  deceits 
to  obtain  his  own  deliverance,  nor  smooth  things  to  conciliate  his  judge. 
He  was  one  of  those  who  was  to  "  turn  the  world  upside  down,"  and, 
therefore,  was  only  pursuing  his  vocation  when  he  turned  a  judgment- 
hall  into  a  sanctuary,  and  made  a  pulpit  of  fhe  prisoner's  bar  ;  show- 
ing how  the  accused  might  arraign  his  judge,  and  the  judge  be  made 
so  to  tremble  on  his  own  tribunal,  that  he  was  glad  to  wave  the  man  of 
chains  away,  saying,  "  Go  thy  way  for  this  time  ;  when  I  have  a  con- 
venient season  I  will  send  for  thee." 

The  text  presents  to  us  two  points  for  consideration :  first,  the  topics 
of  discourse  selected  by  the  apostle ;  and,  then,  the  practical  effect 
of  the  discourse  on  the  mind  of  his  principal  hearer. 

I.  In  considering  the  topics  of  discourse  selected  by  the  apostle, 
you  will  bear  in  mind  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  his  two  principal 
hearers,  Felix  and  Drusilla.  The  former,  as  you  remember,  was  orig- 
inally a  slave  of  the  emperor  Nero  ;  but,  being  raised  to  the  dignity 
of  procurator  of  Judrea,  he  exercised  the  imperial  functions  with  such 
a  mercenary  soul,  and  by  such  open  unfairness  disgraced  his  judicial 
administration,  that  he  compelled  the  Jews  at  last  to  petition  for  his  re- 
moval. The  other  principal  hearer,  Drusilla,  was  the  wife  of  an  insig- 
nificant heathen  king,  who  was  then  hving,  and  who,  after  the  most 


86  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

painful  sacrifices  to  obtain  her  band,  found  bimself  basely  supplanted 
by  bis  more  powerful  neighbor,  the  procurator  of  Judgea.*  Such  were 
the  apostle's  auditors:  a  ruler  hated  for  his  injustice,  a  woman  enthron- 
ed in  unblushing  sin  ;  and  yet  both  evincing  a  strange  and  cm-ious  anx- 
iety to  hear  this  "  ambassador  in  bonds  "  discourse  "  concei-ning  the 
faith  in  Christ." 

And  now,  observe  with  what  holy  skill  this  "  workman  that  needed 
not  to  be  ashamed"  proceeded  to  "  divide  the  word  of  truth."  The 
first  thing  that  cannot  fail  to  be  observed  is,  that  he  does  not  direct  his 
reproofs  against  what  he  knew  to  be  the  vices  of  his  noble  hearers,  but 
that  he  is  wholly  taken  up  in  expatiating  on  the  blessedness  of  the  con- 
trary virtues.  It  was  from  no  want  of  faithfulness  to  the  terms  of  his 
high  commission,  "  boldly  to  rebuke  vice,"  that  the  apostle  did  not 
arouse  the  moral  indignation  of  the  assembled  courtiers,  by  one  of  those 
graj)hic  delineations  of  character  which  sometimes  gave  to  his  pictures 
the  attributes  and  vividness  of  things  of  life.  Easily  could  his  vast 
mental  resources  have  evoked  a  spectre  of  tyranny,  of  which  the  living 
counterpart  sat  before  him,  —  of  an  oppressor,  seated  on  a  purchased 
throne,  ruling  with  a  rod  of  iron,  and  pampering  his  mean  soul,  from 
day  to  day,  with  "  the  wages  of  unrighteousness."  We  should  then 
have  seen  the  pale  wrath  gathering  on  the  monster's  brow,  and  revenge 
choking  all  his  powers  of  utterance,  as  he  sunk  under  the  withering  de- 
tdls  of  the  hireling  crying  out  for  his  defrauded  wages,  and  the  widow 
suing  for  her  alienated  portion,  and  the  orphan,  with  no  advocate  but 
his  miseries,  and  no  weapon  but  his  tears,  pouring  forth  his  disregard- 
ed suit  to  a  Father  that  dwelt  in  heaven.  But  this  holy  preacher  act- 
ed upon  the  spirit  of  his  Master,  and  therefore  resolved  to  prove,  that, 
though  he  hated  the  sin  much,  yet  he  loved  the  sinner  more  ;  that,  if 
he  kindled  coals  of  fire,  it  was  not  to  consume,  but  to  melt,  to  soften, 
to  fuse  into  a  mould  of  penitential  humbleness  the  iron  soul  of  the  trans- 
gressor ;  and,  for  this  end,  he  knew  how  worse  than  useless  would  be 
any  irritating  exhibitions  of  those  judicial  frauds,  the  cry  of  which  had 
so  long  and  so  loudly  entered  into  the  ears  of  the  Lord  of  Sabaoth .  He 
adopted,  therefore,  the  wiser,  and,  as  the  event  proved,  the  more  ef- 
fectual course  of  reasoning  on  topics,  which,  while  they  disarmed  his 
hearers  of  all  hostility  against  himself,  would  yet  pierce,  even  to  the  di- 
viding asunder  of  soul  and  spirit,  the  guilty  pair  before  whom  he  had 
been  desired  to  preach. 

Accordingly  he  opened  his  discourse  by  reasoning  in  favor  of  righte- 
ousness ;  taking  that  term  first,  perhaps,  in  its  most  comprehensive 
meaning,  as  denoting  moral  rectitude,  or  whatsoever  is  due  either  to 

*  Josephus,  lib.  xx.  c.  1. 


PAUL   BEFORE   FELIX.  87 

God  or  man.  All  irreligion  is  essentially  unjust,  as  withholding  from 
God  his  rightful  due  in  the  affections  of  our  hearts,  and  in  the  obedi- 
ence of  our  lives.  It  involves,  also,  a  want  of  rectitude  to  our  fellow- 
men,  in  the  violation  of  the  claims  of  justice  and  benevolence.  But, 
more  particularly,  and  pointedly,  he  would  reason  of  righteousness  in  a 
public  magistrate  ;  of  the  benefits  to  a  nation,  of  the  acceptableness  to 
God,  of  the  calm  satisfaction  to  a  judge's  own  mind,  when,  unawed  by 
thx-eats,  and  inaccessible  to  a  bribe,  he  weighed  all  causes  in  an  even 
balance,  and  ruled  his  people  in  the  fear  of  God  :  and  thus  he  would 
show  this  imperial  favorite  how  he  might  have  that  which  would  be  far 
more  ornamental  than  his  purple,  and  raise  him  much  higher  than  his 
throne  ;  that  the  noblest  kingdom  was  the  empire  over  the  hearts  of 
his  subjects,  and  a  people's  love  the  brightest  jewel  in  his  crown ! 

By  the  same  spirit  was  the  apostle  influenced  in  the  selection  of  his 
second  topic  of  discourse.  He  reasoned  of  temperance  ;  of  the  habit  of 
self  control,  of  the  blessedness  of  keeping  all  our  appetites  under  a  holy 
and  self-denying  restraint,  and  of  the  moral  benefits  to  a  nation,  when 
those  who  sat  in  high  places  threw  a  fresh  lustre  over  their  dignities,  by 
their  unblemished  purity  of  life.  The  occasion  had  not  been  unfit  for  the 
preacher  to  have  discoursed  of  the  griefs  of  an  injured  husband,  basely 
supplanted  in  his  affections,  his  house  left  unto  him  desolate,  and  his  wife 
polluting  God's  holy  altar,  that  she  might  bind  round  her  dishonored 
brow  the  diadem  of  borrowed  royalty.  But  the  apostle  knew,  that,  though 
this  might  be  the  best  way  to  arouse  the  passions,  it  was  the  worst  way 
to  win  the  heart.  He  chose,  therefore,  to  enlarge  on  that  Avise  and  beau- 
tiful subordination  of  the  natural  affections,  described  in  Scripture  as 
temperance,  which  makes  up  the  spiritual  harmony  of  the  soul,  which  is 
the  essence  of  all  gospel  liberty,  which  lays  the  foundation  for  a  holy 
life,  and  thus  educates  the  soul  for  future  companionship  with  God. 
"  Lord,  who  is  he  that  shall  ascend  unto  thy  holy  hill  ?  and  who  shall 
rise  up  in  thy  holy  place  ?  even  he  that  hath  clean  hands  and  a  pure 
heart,  and  that  hath  not  lift  up  his  eyes  unto  vanity,  nor  sworn  to  de- 
ceive his  neighbor."  Without  holiness,  therefore,  no  man,  either 
here  or  hereafter,  shall  see  the  Lord.  Not  here  ;  for  it  is  not  more 
true  that  God  is  of  too  pure  eyes  to  look  upon  iniquity,  than  that  ini- 
quity is  of  too  weak  eyes  to  look  upon  God.  "  I  heard  thy  voice  in 
the  garden,"  said  Adam,  "  and  I  hid  myself,  for  I  was  afraid  :  "  the 
wicked  cannot  hide  their  sins  amidst  the  trees  of  the  garden,  but  they 
will  try  to  hide  themselves.  Not  hereafter ;  for,  to  be  able  to  see 
God,  to  pierce  through  the  dim  opaque  of  nature  and  of  sense,  to  pen- 
etrate, with  eagle  vision,  the  regions  of  light  unapproachable,  is  a  priv. 
ilege  which  God  hath  reserved  exclusively  for  those  who  are  "  washed 


88  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

from  their  filthiness."  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall 
see  God." 

But  the  apostle  proceeds  to  a  third  topic,  the  consideration  of  the 
time  -when  our  observance  or  neglect  of  these  duties  of  righteousness 
and  temperance  should  be  brought  under  the  immediate  cognisance  of 
heaven ;  when  Felix  shall  be  as  Paul,  and  the  judge  shall  stand  by  hia 
prisoner,  and  both  must  put  in  their  pleas  in  answer  to  what  the  God 
of  heaven  shall  lay  to  their  charge.  He  reasoned  of  '^'■judgment  to 
come.'^  Here  was  a  new  theme  to  Felix  :  of  some  judgments  he  knew 
enough,  and  of  the  practice  of  some  judges  too  ;  how  bribes  might  buy 
them,  and  artifice  deceive  them,  and  a  cunning  rhetoric  blind  them, 
and  the  fear  of  man  turn  them  aside.  But  this  was  a  judgment  where 
each  man  would  be  his  own  accuser ;  where  advocates  would  be  placed 
on  their  own  trial ;  where  all  bribes  will  have  been  left  on  this  side  of 
the  grave,  and  where  all  subterfuges  will  be  unmasked  before  the  full 
light  of  heaven. 

In  some  respects,  this  would  be  a  new  theme  to  Drusilla  also:  she 
was  a  Jewess,  and  was  curious  to  hear  what  the  apostle  would  say  about 
Christ ;  and,  in  substance,  the  apostle's  answer  to  her  would  be,  "  He 
whom  your  nation  have  taken,  and  by  wicked  hands  have  crucified  and 
slain,  is  now  exalted  at  the  right  hand  of  power,  wielding  over  the 
spirits  of  men  the  sceptre  of  universal  empire,  putting  forth  the  ener- 
gies of  his  deity  to  save  contrite  and  believing  souls,  but  whetting  his 
two-edged  sword  for  the  destruction  of  the  impenitent  and  the  simier. 
Judge  not  by  what  your  eyes  have  seen  or  your  ears  have  heard  ;  he 
who  departed  in  weakness  shall  return  in  power  ;  he  who  died  in  dis- 
honor shall  appear  in  glory  ;  he  who  was  led  as  a  lamb  to  the  slaugh- 
ter shall  return  like  a  lion /or  the  slaughter.  He  came  the  first  time 
to  seek  and  to  save  ;  he  will  come  the  second  time  to  find  and  to  de- 
stroy. Once,  it  was  enough  that  he  should  be  seen  by  the  traveller 
who  rested  at  the  inn,  or  by  the  wise  men  who  came  from  far  with  gifts ; 
but  then  he  shall  be  seen  by  '  every  eye,'  by  men  from  their  emptied 
graves,  and  by  angels  from  their  forsaken  thrones.  Then  shall  all  kin- 
dreds wail,  as  they  witness  the  commencing  pomp  of  judgment;  as  the 
trump's  shrill  blast  announces  the  sealed-up  book  of  time ;  as,  above 
the  world's  ashes,  there  rises  a  great  white  throne,  and  as  before  it  are 
arrayed,  in  ranks  small  and  great,  the  throngs  of  congregated  dead. 
And  then  the  angels,  those  ministers  that  do  the  judge's  pleasure,  shall 
bring  forth  the  books  of  heaven.  First,  they  shall  unclasp  the  volume 
of  the  Book  of  Life,  unloose  all  its  seven  seals,  and  read  out  aloud  the 
names  of  the  redeemed  of  God.  And  then  another  book  shall  be  open- 
ed ;  the  Book  of  the  Divine  Remembrance,  the  diary  of  conscience 


PAUL  BEFORE   FELIX.  89 

while  it  ^Yas  allowed  to  speak,  but  kept  up  by  angels  when  its  seared 
tongue  could  speak  no  more.  Strange,  passing  strange,  will  be  the 
soul's  meeting  with  its  old  associates;  sms,  of  which  there  may  remain 
no  more  trace  within  us  than  of  a  foot-print  washed  by  the  returning 
tide,  will  then  rise  up  before  us  in  overwhelming  and  terrific  aggre- 
gate :  our  own  tongue  must  confess  them,  our  own  hands  must  subscribe 
the  registry ;  thus  setting  the  seal  to  the  unerring  faithfulness  of  those 
things  which  were  written  in  the  books." 

Brethren,  how  little  do  we  realize  this  thought  of  the  future  judg- 
ment as  perpetuating,  in  all  their  breadth  and  vividness,  the  characters 
of  once-committed  sin.  Offences  which  we  write  on  sand  are  trans- 
cribed by  angels  on  to  a  tablet  of  everlasting  marble :  tyrants  may 
write  in  faint  characters  their  morning  wrongs,  and  leave  them  to  be 
washed  away  by  the  dark  tide  of  their  evening  guilt ;  but  there  are 
no  such  obliterating  tides  in  heaven ;  all  that  we  think,  say,  intend,  or 
do,  is  there  "  graven  with  an  iron  pen,  and  with  lead  in  the  rock  for 
ever."  In  God's  book  not  only  are  "  all  our  membei^s  written,"  but 
the  sins  of  those  members  too  ;  the  eye  in  its  wantonness,  the  tongue 
in  its  deceit,  the  hand  with  its  bribes,  the  heart  with  its  impure  and 
unholy  thoughts,  the  ear  turning  deaf  to  the  poor  man's  call,  and  the 
feet  in  their  swiftness  to  shed  innocent  blood.  Yea,  even  the  blank 
leaves  in  this  book  shall  contribute  to  our  everlasting  undoing :  duties 
not  done,  warnings  not  regarded,  opportunities  not  cultivated,  and 
holy  convictions  not  followed  up,  and  improved,  and  deepened,  will 
appear  as  witnesses  against  us,  and  supply  lashes  for  that  final  scourge 
which  shall  drive  the  impenitent  soul  from  the  everlastmg  presence  of 
God. 

II.  But  we  must  proceed  to  the  other  division  of  our  subject : 
The  PRACTICAL  EFFECT  of  the  discourse  on  the  mind  of  its  principal 
hearer  ;  and  the  important  lessons  to  be  gathered  from  the  conduct  and 
language  of  Felix.  At  the  end  of  the  discourse,  Felix  trembled,  and 
answered,  "  Go  thy  way  for  this  time  ;  when  I  have  a  convenient  sea- 
son, I  will  call  for  thee."  Felix  trembled!  What  a  striking  testimo- 
ny have  we  here  to  the  power  of  conscience ;  to  the  yet  undethroned 
authority  of  heaven's  viceroy  in  the  human  soul ;  to  the  difficulty  of 
effacing  the  chai-actcrs  of  that  inward  decalogue,  in  whose  broken  ta- 
bles nature  still  reads  her  law,  and  the  heathen  finds  himself  "  without 
excuse  :  "  and,  until  it  is  seared  over  by  the  hot  iron  of  hardening 
and  unrepented  sin,  or  until  its  fine  edge  is  blunted  by  a  course  of 
oft-resisted  and  despised  convictions,  will  conscience  continue  to  pros- 
per in  that  whereunto  God  hath  sent  it.     In  the  soul's  deep  solitude 


90  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

it  will  hold  its  court :  itself  the  giver  of  the  law ;  itself  the  witness 
to  its  transgression ;  itself  the  judge  to  sentence ;  itself  the  execu- 
tioner to  avenge  ;  all  as  if  in  mute  rehearsal  of  that  deeper  tragedy, 
where,  on  the  high  platform  of  heaven's  judicature,  both  quick  and 
dead  must  stand. 

Thus  was  it  in  the  bosom  of  Felix.  Torpid  and  trance-like  had 
Heaven's  messenger  been  lying  in  the  lap  of  sin ;  but,  at  the  sound 
of  Paul's  voice,  she  proved  she  was  "  not  dead,  but  sleeping ;  "  telling 
him,  in  her  stifled  utterances,  to  hear  the  anticipative  verdict  of  a 
judgment  yet  to  come  ;  and,  instantly  the  governor  forgot  his  dignity, 
as  much  as  the  prisoner  forgot  his  chains.  The  two  parties  appeared, 
for  the  moment,  to  have  changed  places ;  conscience  ha\ing  made  a 
coward  of  the  judge,  and  truth  having  invested  the  captive  with  more 
majesty  than  the  purple.  And  why,  we  may  ask,  did  not  the  genuine 
conversion  of  the  governor  ensue  upon  this  ?  The  reasoning  of  the 
apostle  had  convinced  his  understanding,  and  had  both  awakened  and 
alarmed  his  conscience  ;  wherefore  did  it  not  penetrate  further,  into 
the  iimer  chamber  of  the  heart  ?  Without  controversy,  this  is  the 
natural  tendency  of  deep  spiritual  convictions ;  left  to  itself,  truth 
would  as  assuredly  issue  in  the  dividing  asunder  of  soul  and  spirit,  as 
water,  unobstructed,  would  run  down  the  mountain's  side.  But  we 
may  oppose  a  force  to  this  spiritual  gravitation ;  the  Spirit  of  God 
will  work  powerfully  with  us,  but  it  will  not  always  work  irresistibly 
against  us  ;  and,  therefore,  if,  after  a  man  has  had  the  eyes  of  his 
understanding  opened,  and  the  powers  of  his  moral  sense  awakened, 
he  should  still  resolve,  like  Felix,  to  say  to  every  message  addressed 
to  his  soul,  "  Go  thy  way  for  this  time,"  with  sorrowful  steps  and 
slow  will  the  insulted  Spirit  retire  from  his  heart,  leaving  conscience  to 
return  to  its  stupor,  and  the  understanding  to  close  its  eyes  again. 

And,  here,  let  us  not  lose  ourselves  in  any  metaphysical  subtleties, 
as  to  where  the  constraining  energy  of  the  Spirit  terminates,  and  the 
permitted  exercise  of  the  human  will  begins.  Philosophy  cannot  teU 
us  any  thing  more  than  our  own  consciousness ;  and,  if  it  could  tell 
us  any  thing  contrary  to  it,  we  should  pause  before  we  received  it : 
and  this  consciousness  tells  us,  that  we  have  it  in  our  power  almost  at 
any  time  to  dismiss  an  unwelcome  subject  from  our  thoughts.  "  The 
most  obvious  of  the  powers  which  the  mind  possesses  over  the  traui  of 
its  thoughts,"  says  an  eminent  authority,  "  is  its  power  of  singling  out 
any  one  of  them  at  pleasure  ;  of  detaining  it ;  of  making  it  a  partic- 
ular object  of  attention ; "  *  and,  for  the  calling  into  exercise  of  this 
power,  there  is  no  readier  or  more  effective  way  than  that  resorted  to 

*  Stewart's  Philosophy  of  the  Human  Mind,  p.  S98. 


PAUL    BEFORE    FELIX.  91 

by  the  g'liltj  FeUx :  namely,  by  the  forced  dismissal  of  every  exter- 
nal association,  by  which  the  succession  of  disagreeable  thoughts 
could  be  kept  up ;  or  by  surrounding  ourselves  with  other  outward  ob- 
jects, which  should  divert  these  thoughts  into  a  different  channel.  The 
conduct  of  Felix,  therefore,  is  intelligible  enough :  with  the  sermon  in 
his  ears,  and  with  the  preacher  before  his  eyes,  and  having  seated  at 
his  side  the  shameless  partner  of  his  crimes,  he  could  think  of  nothing 
but  "  righteousness,  temperance,  and  judgment  to  come."  Conscience 
seemed  to  owe  all  its  power  to  the  presence  of  the  apostle ;  and,  so 
long  as  Paul  was  allowed  to  lash  him  with  "  whips,"  would  conscience 
have  the  power  to  scourge  his  soul  with  "  scorpions."  *  To  break  the 
chain,  therefore,  to  stop  the  succession  of  painful  thoughts,  he  resolves 
on  an  immediate  dismissal  of  the  preacher,  saying,  "  Go  thy  way  for 
this  time  ;  when  I  have  a  convenient  season,  I  will  caU  for  thee." 

But  the  most  important  of  the  practical  lessons  to  be  gathered  from 
this  history  remains  to  be  considered ;  namely,  the  strange  infatuation 
of  miconverted  men,  in  supposing  that,  though  they  tiifle  with  con- 
viction for  the  present,  a  time  will  yet  come,  when  they  shall  be  bet- 
ter prepared  to  yield  to  them,  "  When  I  have  a  convenient  season, 
I  will  call  for  thee."  The  great  fallacy  of  life  seems  to  be  a  persuar 
sion,  that,  having  for  a  given  part  of  our  days  run  in  the  way  of  the 
ungodly,  we  shall  afterwards  be  able  to  retrace  our  steps,  and,  with 
the  speed  of  thought,  find  ourselves  in  the  ways  of  God.  All  consid- 
erations of  time,  habit,  diminished  strength,  and  contracted  iasensibil- 
ity  to  religious  impressions,  are  overlooked ;  whilst  the  soul  yields 
itself  to  the  fascinations  of  delay,  pledges  the  future  to  noble  and 
high  resolves,  and  sees  facihties  for  duty  in  some  distant  morrow, 
which  it  thinks  are  wholly  wanting  "  while  it  is  called  to-day."  In 
vain  does  reason  urge,  that,  if  we  find  it  hard  to  put  out  the  first  spark 
of  sin,  we  shall  find  it  harder  still  to  extinguish  the  raging  flame  ;  that, 
if  we  cannot  pluck  up  sin  when  it  is  a  green  twig,  it  will  be  in  vain  to 
try  when  custom  has  given  it  the  strength  of  a  sturdy  tree :  spell- 
bound and  reason-proof,  we  resolve  that  it  is  better  to  "  contend  with 
horses,"  than  let  "  the  footmen  "  weary  ns  ;  and  that,  though,  at  this 
time,  we  faint  in  the  land  of  peace,  yet,  only  give  us  a  convenient 
season,  and  we  will  breast  even  "  the  swelhngs  of  Jordan." 

In  our  remaining  remarks,  therefore,  we  would  be  considered  as  en- 
deavoring to  prove  the  utter  improbability,  both  from  the  constitution 
of  the  human  mind,  and  from  the  lessons  of  human  experience,  that 
to  any  person  postponing  the  work  of  repentance  to  a  more  conve- 

*"  My  conscience  Imlli  a  thousand  several  tongiica, 

And  every  tongue  brings  in  a  several  tale." — Shaesfeabb. 


92  THE   ENGLISH  PDLPIT. 

nient  season,  such  season  should  ever  come.  "We  are  not  about  to  dig 
for  such  an  one  an  early  grave,  nor  to  introduce  the  contingency,  that, 
suddenly  and  unlooked-for,  may  the  last  foem.an  come.  But,  on  the 
contrary,  even  supposing  him  to  have  a  special  indemnity  against  both 
these  evils  :  that,  in  his  right  hand,  were  a  charter,  securing  to  him 
length  of  days,  and,  in  his  left,  a  promise  that  he  should  die  as  grad- 
ually and  as  slowly  as  the  sun  when  sinking  into  his  "  golden  rest ; " 
we  still  affirm,  that  there  is  the  highest  human  probability  that  he 
never  will  repent,  if  he  systematically  despise  warnings  and  convic- 
tions 710W.  We  all  know  that  there  are  certain  things  which  are  in- 
separable from  a  state  of  reconciliation  and  acceptance  with  Almighty 
God ;  that  there  are  truths  to  be  learned,  enmities  to  be  rooted  up, 
habits  to  be  formed,  dispositions  to  be  cherished,  and  that,  till  all  this 
be  done,  we  can  neither  die  happily,  nor  rise  unblameably. 

Not,  however,  to  amplify  too  largely  on  the  parts  of  the  saintly 
life,  let  us  confine  our  reasonings  to  two  obvious  requisites  :  the  illu- 
mination of  the  mind,  and  the  sanctification  of  the  heart ;  the 
way  of  holiness  understood,  and  the  habit  of  holiness  formed ;  the 
light  which  shows  heaven  to  us,  and  the  grace  which  prepares  us  for 
heaven.  Now,  first,  what  is  the  hope,  that,  in  old  age,  (the  conve- 
nient season  of  all  procrastinators,)  our  power  of  apprehending  spirit- 
ual truth  will  be  as  keen  and  vigorous  as  we  should  find  it  now  ?  That 
we  do  not  select  old  age  as  the  time  for  learning  the  rudiments  of  a 
language,  nor  employ  its  impaired  faculties  in  acquiring  new  principles 
of  science,  arises  from  the  consciousness  that  our  powers  of  intelli- 
gence become  Aveakened  as  the  frame  with  which  it  is  united  becomes 
enfeebled  or  decayed.  We  have  reason  to  believe  that  the  brain  is 
the  material  medium  through  which  the  mind  acts ;  that  is,  that  cer- 
tain altered  states  of  the  material  substance  are  connected  with  cer- 
tain altered  states  of  the  sentient  mind  ;  and  this  appears  to  be  an 
ultimate  fact  of  our  nature,  which,  from  the  want  of  homogeneousness 
in  the  substances  aSected,  we  consider  to  be  incapable  of  further 
analysis.  Unexplained  itself,  however,  this  mystery  may,  perhaps, 
explain  other  mysteries ;  it  may  explain  whei-efore  aged  persons  have 
such  difficulty  in  receiving  new  impressions,  especially  when,  in  order 
to  their  reception,  they  must  displace  others,  which  they  had  admitted 
and  cherished  long  before :  for  it  is  at  least  possible,  that  the  sub- 
stance, with  which  the  thinking  mind  is  united,  obeying  the  law  of 
other  substances  in  the  human  system,  may  acquire^  by  long  growth 
and  use,  a  settled  habit  or  form,  which  the  impaired  energy  of  old  age 
renders  it  not  easy  to  disturb.  Hence,  perhaps,  in  part,  that  practical 
difficulty  which  ministers  of  the  gospel  so  constantly  meet  with,  wl*en 


PAUL   BEFORE   FELIX.  93 

called  to  converse  -witli  an  aged  man,  for  the  first  time,  on  the  tbinga 
■which  belong  unto  bis  peace.  Tbej  find  that  opinions,  which  have 
been  the  growth,  perhaps,  of  an  ordinary  life,  have  entirely  possessed 
themselves  of  bis  mind ;  alike  indisposing  him  either  for  unlearning 
what  is  false,  or  for  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  that  which  is  true :  so 
that,  in  however  many  lights  they  may  place  the  gospel-way  of  salvar 
tion,  bis  mind  does  not  readily  embrace  it,  because  already  pre-engaged 
with  some  other  way.  The  doctrine  of  a  sinner's  acceptance  through 
faith  in  the  blood  of  Christ,  is  like  a  new  language  to  him  ;  his  un- 
derstanding appreciates  not  the  necessity  of  such  a  doctrine ;  and, 
when  taken  in  connection  with  that  changed  state  of  his  moral  affec- 
tions required  by  the  gospel,  bis  heart  is  unwilhng  to  submit  to  it :  so 
that,  at  every  pause  in  our  exhortation  to  him  to  stay  bis  soul  on  the 
Savior's  righteousness,  some  expression  falls  from  his  lips  evincing  a 
continued  dependence  on  bis  own. 

But,  brethren,  if  it  be  a  hard  thing  merely  to  instruct  the  hoary  head 
in  the  way  of  righteousness  ;  if  every  year  of  delayed  conversion  les- 
sens our  capacity  even  to  comprehend  Grod's  method  of  pardoning  and 
restoring  sinners ;  how  immeasurably  more  difficult  shall  we  find  it  to 
fulfil  that  other  requirement  of  heaven,  the  sanctification  of  the 
heart !  to  plant,  in  this  overrun  and  howling  waste,  the  seeds  of  that 
hoHness,  without  which  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord  !  For,  in  order  to 
this,  we  have  not  only  to  expel  the  love  of  the  world,  to  break  the  as- 
sociated chain  of  past  enjoyments,  to  undo  all,  as  all  had  never  been; 
but  we  have  to  form  a  new  habit  in  the  soul,  to  make  every  thing  yield 
to  the  power  of  a  new  affection,  and  to  bind  every  disobedient  and  trai- 
torous thought  in  sweet  captivity  to  the  will  of  God.  But,  would  eith- 
er reason  or  experience  teach  us  that  this  can  be  an  easy  task  ?  Do 
we  not  all  know  the  moral  force  of  habit  ?  that  mysterious  suggestive 
faculty,  whereby  our  actions,  whether  good  or  evil,  reproduce  and  per- 
petuate themselves  ;  till,  at  last,  they  become  as  integi'al  portions  of 
our  moral  being,  and  lord  it  over  our  souls  with  the  tyranny  of  a  sec- 
ond nature.  Indeed,  to  estimate,  in  some  degree,  the  difficulty  of  ef- 
fecting a  revolution  such  as  that  supposed  by  gospel-sanctification,  it  ig 
only  needful  to  single  out  any  one  from  the  prevalent  habits  and  dis- 
positions of  life,  and  to  count  the  time  and  cost  of  changing  it  for  an- 
other, which  should  be  opposite.  Let  the  clenched  hand  of  parsimony 
learn  to  practise  a  liberal  and  enlarged  munificence  ;  let  the  boaster 
of  high  degree  turn  a  contemptuous  eye  on  all  the  relics  of  ancestral 
pride  ;  and  we  may  then  imagine  how  hard  it  is  for  these  habit-dyed 
Ethiopians  to  change  their  skins,  or  these  sin-marked  leopards  to  efface 
their  spots ! 


94  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

The  probability,  therefore,  that  a  yjostponed  repentance  will  ever  be 
an  effectual  or  sincere  repentance,  may  be  put  to  an  easy  test.  If,  in 
a  dying  hour  ;  if,  in  the  day  of  the  mind's  feebleness,  and  decay,  and 
waste  ;  if,  in  a  brief  remnant,  cut  off  from  a  life  of  worldliness,  or  sleep, 
or  sin,  the  soul  can  evoke  into  existence  a  new  order  of  affections,  and, 
in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  put  on  its  dress  for  heaven ;  we  need  mor- 
alize no  longer  on  the  perils  of  spiritual  delay ;  we  may  let  conscience 
sleep  on  in  the  lap  of  the  great  thief  of  time,  saying,  for  this  time,  let 
us  "  eat  and  drink,"  and  hereafter  we  can  repent  and  die.  But  if,  on 
the  contrary,  worldly  habits  strike  root  downwards,  the  more  they  bear 
fruit  upwards  ;  if  sanctification  demands  that  every  ancient  idol  fall  and 
be  crushed  before  the  ark  of  God ;  and  if  time,  if  labor,  if  holy  and 
persevering  effort,  be  needed  to  educa^te  immortal  spirits  for  the  skies  ; 
then,  was  ever  folly  like  his  folly,  who,  with  a  conviction  that  his  soul 
is  at  this  moment  lying  under  the  wrath  of  God,  would  say  to  the  mes- 
senger of  heaven,  whoever  he  may  be,  "  Go  thy  way  for  this  time  ; 
when  I  have  a  convenient  season,  I  will  call  for  thee  ?  " 

Neither  are  the  results  of  experience,  as  collected  from  those  who 
are  in  the  habit  of  attending  the  closing  scenes  of  hfe,  at  all  opposed 
to  the  conclusions  of  antecedent  reasoning.  Physicians  concur  with 
Divines  in  attesting,  that  men,  for  the  most  part,  die  as  they  live,  and 
that  the  exhaustion  of  nature's  strength  alone  frequently  incapacitates 
them  for  any  essential  change  in  the  state  and  affections  of  the  mind. 
Thus,  those  who  live  the  hfe  of  the  unrighteous,  die  the  death  of  the 
unrighteous  also  ;  the  power  of  unbelief  is  as  victorious  in  the  dying 
hour,  as  in  the  hours  of  health  ;  sin,  the  world,  and  the  devil  hold  their 
victims  in  strong  delusion  to  the  last ;  and  that  Savior,  who,  through 
life,  had  been  regarded  as  "  a  root  out  of  a  dry  ground,"  appears,  even 
in  death,  to  be  destitute  of  all  "  form  and  comeliness." 

Let  us  conclude  with  one  or  two  practical  reflections  :  —  First,  how 
great  is  the  danger  of  resisting  religious  convictions  !  of  turning  a  deaf 
ear  to  language,  which,  by  its  effects  on  our  minds,  is  discerned  to  be 
the  voice  of  God !  It  is  not  needful  tha,t  we  should  have  a  Paul  preach- 
ins:  before  us,  or  a  Drusilla  seated  beside  us,  in  order  that  words  utter- 
ed  in  the  sanctuary  should  appear  to  have  been  so  expressly  written 
for  us,  to  have  come  home  to  our  consciences  with  so  much  of  closeness 
and  of  power,  that,  although  we  could  not  send  the  preacher  away,  we 
were  but  too  willing  to  be  sent  away  by  the  preacher  ;  hailing  with 
gladness  the  breaking  up  of  the  solemn  assembly,  welcoming  with  eager- 
ness the  in-rushing  current  of  worldly  thoughts,  and  giving  a  tacit 
promise  to  our  consciences  to  call  for  these  holy  convictions  at  som(> 


PAUL   BEFORE   FELIX.  95 

more  convenient  season.  But,  how  know  we  that  these  convictions 
will  come  when  we  call  them  ?  Where  is  our  warrant  for  supposing 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  will  bide  our  time  ;  will  tarry  our  convenience  ; 
will  wait  the  day  when  we,  having  nothing  else  to  occupy  us,  wiU  per- 
mit him  to  rekindle  his  quenched  flame,  and  to  repeat  the  warnings 
which  we  neglected  or  despised  before  ?  Surely,  all  experience  would 
look  the  other  way ;  would  teach,  that  convictions  lose  their  power 
when  they  lose  their  freshness.  Felix,  we  are  told,  heard  Paul  preach 
many  times  afterwards ;  but  we  do  not  find  that  he  ever  trembled  af- 
ter the  first. 

Lastly,  how  great  is  the  affront  to  God,  of  this  intention  to  yield  to 
rehgious  convictions  hereafter  !  To  delay  our  preparation  for  heaven 
is  not  a  foolish  thing  only,  not  a  dangerous  thing  only  ;  it  is  a  profane, 
a  wicked,  a  God-dishonoring  thing.  We  cannot  purpose  to  amend  our 
lives  to-morrow,  without  also  purposing  to  insult  God  to-day.  To  teU 
God  that  we  mean  to  repent  next  year,  is  to  tell  him  that  we  do  not 
mean  to  repent  before.  We  may  keep  our  resolution,  or  we  may  not 
keep  it ;  but  the  mere  forming  of  it  implies  that,  until  the  time  specified 
arrives,  we  intend  to  go  on  sinning  still,  to  make  more  work  for  his  par- 
doning mercy  in  the  interim ;  cuttmg  out,  as  it  were,  a  space  from  the 
tenn  of  our  moral  probation,  and  bargaining  with  high  heaven  for  an 
indulgence  for  prospective  sin. 

Hear  we,  then,  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter,  which  we  may 
fairly  sum  up,  in  a  single  sentence,  thus  :  that  repentance  delayed 
IS  mercy  trifled  with,  and  a  holy  life  intended  only,  is  life 
ETERNAL  LOST.  To  Say  to  any  religious  conviction,  "  Go  thy  way  for 
this  time,"  is  to  degrade  reason,  to  injure  the  soul,  to  disparage  heav- 
en, to  dishonor  God.  It  is  as  if  we  designed  to  give  God  the  worst  of 
our  days,  and  spend  on  self  and  sin  the  best ;  to  reserve  a  lamb  of  the 
first  year  for  the  world,  and  to  bring  to  the  Lord  only  the  maimed  and 
the  blind :  it  is  to  offer  at  the  shrine  of  the  evil  one  our  manhood,  our 
vigor,  our  freshness,  our  strength ;  and  to  lay  on  the  altar  of  the  God 
of  heaven  an  offering  of  disease,  decay,  old  age,  and  mental  feebleness. 
God  grant  that  we  may  bring  no  more  of  these  vain  oblations  ;  but 
now,  in  the  accepted  time,  now,  m  our  convenient  season,  may  "  offer 
an  offering  in  righteousness,  and  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord  ! " 
Amen. 


96  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

SERMON    VIII. 

CHKISTIANITY     A    SYSTEM     OF    LOVE. 

BY    KEV.    JOHN    ANGELL   JAMES. 

"  By  love  serve  one  another." — Galatians  t.  13. 

Ckristianity  is  a  system  of  love,  —  of  love  in  its  purest,  brightest, 
and  divinest  form.  It  is  an  emanation  from  the  mind  and  heart  of  in- 
finite and  eternal  Benevolence.  Its  doctrines  are  the  truths  of  love  ; 
its  principles  are  the  rules  of  love  ;  its  invitations  are  the  offers  of  love  ; 
its  promises  are  the  assurances  of  love  ;  its  very  threatenings  are  the 
severities  of  love  ;  and  its  one  great  design  is,  to  expel  selfishness  from 
the  human  bosom,  and  to  plant  in  its  room  a  principle  of  holy  and  univer- 
sal philanthropy.  Hence  a  man  may  be  so  intimately  acquainted  with 
all  the  evidences  of  this  Divine  system,  as  to  be  enabled,  by  the  most 
powerful  and  subtle  logic,  to  defend  its  outworks  against  the  attacks  of 
infidelity ;  he  may  understand,  and  be  able  to  arrange  all  its  doctrines 
as  articles  of  faith  in  the  most  symmetrical  order ;  he  may  also  be  able 
to  harmonize  seeming  discrepancies  and  contradictions  ;  but  still,  if  he 
know  not  that  the  essence  of  Christianity  is  love,  he  has  no  sympathy 
within  his  inner  soul,  he  has  mistaken  its  genius  and  its  spirit,  and  is  as 
blind  to  its  richest  glories,  as  the  individual  whose  darkened  eye-balls 
never  look  on  the  glories  of  the  sky,  nor  the  beauties  of  the  earth. 

My  subject  is  in  harmony  with  the  feelings  of  my  own  heart,  with 
the  movements  of  the  day,  and  with  the  design  for  which  we  are  as- 
sembled this  evening.  The  text  is  love  ;  and  I  hope  the  sermon  will, 
in  accordance  with  the  text,  be  love  also. 

In  the  first  place,  I  shall  endeavor  to  explain  the  nature,  and  to 
exhibit  the  grounds  and  manifestations  of  Christian  love  ;  in  the  second 
place,  show  some  of  the  reasons  why  the  different  denominations  of 
professing  Christians  should  exercise  this  love  one  to  another ;  thirdly, 
point  out  the  manner  in  which  we  may  manifest  this  disposition,  and 
then  urge    a    few   appropriate  and  cogent  motives. 

I,  In  the  first  place,  I  am  to  explain  the  nature  and  exliibit  the 
grounds  and  exercises  of  Christian  love. 

That  artificer,  as  it  has  been  called,  of  deification,  the  corrupt  soul 
of  man,  never  once,  amidst  all  its  multiplied  devices,  struck  out  the 
idea  of  absolute  goodness.      And  how  should  it  ?      A.11  its  prototypes 


CHRISTIANITY   A    SYSTEM   OF   LOVE.  97 

for  the  formation  of  its  gods,  were  founded  on  itself — on  its  o\\n  pas- 
sions. But  what  idolatry  could  not  do,  and  human  reason  in  the  high- 
est stretch  of  its  powers  could  never  approach,  the  apostle,  in  one  beau- 
tiful expression,  has  set  before  us  —  "  God  is  love."  This  we  owe  to 
Revelation,  and  it  never  could  have  come  from  any  other  source.  The 
love  of  God  is  not  an  infinite  quietism  of  the  Divine  mind,  retired  from 
all  human  affairs  and  leaving  the  world  to  take  care  of  itself;  it  is  an 
active  principle. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  love  in  the  Divine  mind ;  the  love  of  com- 
placency, which  it  bears  to  all  the  holy  parts  of  creation,  and  the  love 
of  benevolence,  which  it  bears  to  the  whole  creation  irrespective  of  mor- 
al character.  Analogous  to  this,  there  is  in  the  mind  of  every  good 
man,  a  two-fold  love  ;  the  love  of  complacency,  which  he  always  bears 
towards  the  righteous,  and  the  love  of  benevolence,  which  he  is  to  bear 
to  the  whole  sentient  creation.  The  apostle  distinguishes  these  two, 
where  he  says,  add  "  to  brotherly  kindness,  charit^^"  Beyond  that 
inner  circle,  where  brotherly  kindness  "  lives  and  moves  and  has  its 
being,"  there  is  an  outer  circle,  in  Avhich  charity  also  is  to  revolve  and 
perform  its  part.  And,  be  it  recollected,  that  we  are  to  be  no  less  as- 
siduous in  the  duties  of  the  outer  circle,  than  we  are  in  those  of  the 
inner  ;  and  that  man,  whatever  his  professions  to  brotherly  kindness 
may  be,  has  but  the  name  who  adds  not  to  it  charity. 

Look  at  the  operations  of  chanty,  or  the  love  of  benevolence.  It 
was  this  which  existed  in  the  mind  of  Deity  from  eternity,  and  in  the 
exercise  of  which  he  so  loved  our  guilty  world,  as  to  give  his  "  only 
begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but 
have  everlasting  life."  It  Avas  on  the  wings  of  charity,  that  the  Son 
of  God  flew  from  heaven  to  earth,  on  an  errand  of  mercy  to  our  lost 
world  ;  it  was  charity  that  moved  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  apos- 
tles, and  urged  them,  with  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation,  from  country  to 
country.  The  Avhole  missionary  enterprise  is  founded,  not  of  course 
on  the  basis  of  brotherly  kindness,  but  on  that  of  charity.  All  those 
splendid  instances  that  have  been  presented  to  us  of  the  exercise  of 
philanthropy,  and  with  which  your  memories  are  familiar,  are  all  the 
operations  of  this  Divine  charity.  See  Howard,  leaving  the  seclusion  of 
a  country  gentleman,  giving  up  his  elegant  retreat,  and  all  its  luxurious 
gratifications,  pacing  to  and  fro  through  Europe,  plunging  into  dun- 
geons, battling  with  pestilence,  weighing  the  fetters  of  the  prisoner, 
gauging  the  diseases  even  of  the  pest-house, —  all  under  the  influence 
of  heavenly  charity.  See  Wilberforce,  through  twenty  years  of  his 
life,  hfting  up  his  unwearied  voice,  and  employing  his  fascinating  elo- 
quence against  the  biggest  outrage  that  ever  trampled  on  the  riiihts  of 
7 


98  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

humanity.  What  formed  his  character,  sketched  his  plan,  inspired  his 
zeal,  but  charity  ?  See  that  illustrious  woman,  lately  departed,  so  ripe 
for  glory,  and  so  richly  invested  with  it,  who  interested  herself  amidst 
the  prisoners  of  Newgate, —  to  chain  their  passions,  to  reclaim  their 
vices,  and  to  render  them  more  meet  for  society,  which  had  condemned 
them  as  its  outcasts.  ^Vliat  was  it,  that  gave  to  Mrs.  Fry  her  principle 
of  action,  —  what,  indeed,  was  the  principle  itself,  but  charity  ? 

Let  us,  then,  my  dear  friends,  not  confine  our  attention  exclusively  to 
•'  brotherly  kindness,"  but  passing  this  narrower  boundary,  go  out  into 
the  great  world,  with  a  principle  like  that  which  I  have  now  described 
—  which  existed  in  the  bosom  of  Deity,  was  displayed  by  the  Son  of 
God  upon  the  cross,  and  which  was  the  basis  of  the  origin  of  that  In- 
stitution which  it  is  my  delight  and  my  honor  to  plead  this  evening. 

But  I  am  directed  particularly,  by  the  manner  in  which  I  intend 
to  treat  the  subject  this  evening,  to  "  brotherly  kindness  "  —  to  broth- 
erly love,  as  the  word  would  be  more  emphatically  rendered.  Broth- 
erly love  is  founded  on  two  things  :  a  common  relation  and  a  common 
character.  It  is  the  love  of  all  those  v/ho  are  with  us  disciples  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  —  children  by  regeneration  of  the  one  living  and 
true  God.  This  is  the  ground  of  brotherly  love  ;  and  if  it  exist  on 
such  ground  as  this,  the  man  Avho  loves  one  brother  loves  all,  and  he 
who  loves  not  all,  loves  none.  We  must  go  higher,  and  sink  deeper, 
for  the  grounds  and  motives  of  brotherly  love,  than  the  names,  the 
greatest,  the  most  venerable,  and  the  most  venerated  names  amongst 
men.  It  must  be  something  deeper  than  Calvin,  or  Luther,  or  Whit- 
field, or  Wesley  ;  we  must  never  stop  for  the  foundation  of  brotherly 
love,  until  we  touch  the  rock  of  ages,  which  rock  is  Jesus  Christ.  He 
that  loves  others  only  for  the  sake  of  man,  loves  them  with  an  affection 
infinitely  lower  than  he  who  loves  them  for  the  sake  of  Christ  and  of 
God. 

But  there  is  a  common  character,  which  is  also  a  ground  of  brother- 
ly love,  as  well  as  a  common  relation.  The  objects  of  this  aifection 
bear  one  common  impress  —  the  image  of  the  heavenly  Father.  In 
human  families,  it  is  sometimes  extremely  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to 
trace  any  resemblance  between  the  children  and  the  parents.  Not  so 
in  the  Divine  family.  God,  in  regeneration,  never  begets  a  child,  but 
in  his  own  likeness ;  and  where  there  is  not  the  image  of  the  Father, 
there  cannot  be  the  relation.  The  family  hkeness,  in  that  circle  where 
none  are  related  to  God  by  a  more  distant  relationship  than  that  of  a 
child,  is  holiness  ;  hohness  is  the  family  feature  of  the  household  of 
faith.  And  where  we  see  holiness,  the  mind  of  Christ,  the  image  of 
God  —  for  these  are  convertible  terms ;  whatever  be  the  color  of  the 


CHRISTIANITY   A   SYSTEM   OF   LOVE.  G9 

skin  of  the  man  that  bears  this  image,  whatever  be  the  nation  which 
gave  liim  birth,  whatever  be  the  party  name  by  which  he  is  distinguish- 
ed —  there  we  are  to  recognize  an  object,  to  wliich  we  are  to  be  drawn 
by  the  irresistible  attraction  of  our  Father's  image,  and  by  the  mighty 
influence  of  a  new  nature  in  our  own  souls.  And  the  man  that  sees  all 
this,  and  yet  waits  and  wishes  for  a  second  reason  for  his  affection  —  who 
closes  his  hand,  places  it  in  his  bosom,  keeps  his -feelings  in  abeyance, 
and  holds  back  his  heart,  until  he  has  found  a  denominational  relation- 
ship, has  not  a  spark  of  brotherly  love  in  his  soul.  What !  shall  the 
name  of  Jesus,  shall  the  character  of  God,  be  not  enough  to  engage 
our  love  to  one,  who  bears  the  name  and  the  likeness  of  our  Father, 
and  stands  united  to  our  Savior  by  the  tie  of  a  common  faith,  till  we 
have  found  out  that  he  is  related  to  us  by  party  name,  as  well  as  to 
God  by  the  bond  of  a  new  nature. 

And  how,  my  brethren,  does  brotherly  love  operate  where  it  exists  ? 
I  shall  attempt  no  description  of  my  own,  except  a  passing  remark,  as 
I  go  forward,  on  that  which  the  apostle  has  already  given  us.  "  Love 
suffereth  long  "  — is  not  easily  roused  into  resentment  or  to  malice  by 
injuries,  great  or  small :  "  is  kind  "  in  words,  in  actions,  and  in  spirit ; 
the  law  of  kindness  is  upon  its  Hps,  and  the  fruit  of  kindness  drops  from 
its  hand.  "  Love  envieth  not."  Envy  is  that  misery  which  we  feel  at 
the  sight  of  another  superior  or  more  excellent  character,  which  makes 
us  miserable  at  the  sight  of  it,  and  causes  us  to  hate  the  more  eminent 
one,  on  which  the  diabohcal  glance  is  fixed  —  than  which  is  not  to  be 
found  a  temper  nearer  akin  to  that  which  rages  through  hell.  "  Love 
vaunteth  not  itself,  is  not  puffed  up  "  —  does  not  boast  what  it  has 
done,  can  do,  or  will  do,  what  it  is,  or  what  it  has  been  — but  is  cloth- 
ed with  the  garment  of  humility.  "  Love  doth  not  behave  itself  un- 
seemly "  — keeps  its  place,  like  a  soldier  in  the  ranks,  and  steps  not 
out  of  the  position,  in  which  it  has  been  placed.  "  Love  seeketh  not 
her  own"  — abhors  selfishness,  looks  upon  the  things  of  others,  as  well 
as  upon  its  own  ;  "  is  not  easily  provoked  "  — is  not  passionate,  giving 
way  to  ebullitions  of  rage  of  any  kind;  "  thinketh  no  evil"  —  is  not 
hasty  to  impute  a  bad  motive,  as  long  as  a  good  one  can  be  found,  for 
the  actions  of  another ;  "  rejoiceth  not  in  iniquity,  but  rejoiceth  in  the 
truth" — ^. takes  no  pleasure  in  the  failings  and  misconduct  of  a  foe. 
but  delights  in  the  manifestations  of  excellence,  even  when  its  own 
cause  would  thus  seem  to  be  damaged  by  what  it  discerns  in  another  : 
*'beareth,"  or  covereth,  "  all  things," — has  not  a  microscope  in  its 
hand,  ever  to  magnify  the  failings  that  are  near,  nor  a  telescope,  to 
bring  near  those  that  are  remote,  but  a  mantle,  to  cover  all  that  need 
not  be  exposed  to  public  view  ;  "  believeth  all  things,"  to  the  advan- 


100  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

tage  of  another  ;  "  hopeth  all  things,"  where  it  has  not  ground  for  faith ; 
"  endureth  all  things  "  — makes  any  sacrifice,  bears  anj  labor,  for  the 
benefit  of  others.     Such  are  the  manifestations  of  love. 

Now  for  a  moment  or  two  dwell  on  the  importance  which  is  attach- 
ed to  it  by  the  various  representations  which  are  given  of  it  in  the  word 
of  God. 

It  is  the  outward  manifestation  of  an  inward  principle  of  belief  — 
"  Faith  worketh  by  love."  It  is  the  evidence  of  regeneration,  in  the 
possession  of  which  a  man  may  as  certainly  conclude  that  he  is  a  child 
of  God,  as  if  a  seraph  were  dispatched  from  the  throne,  to  tell  him  that 
he  had  seen  his  name  written  in  the  Lamb's  book  of  life.  It  is  the 
grand  novelty  of  the  Christian  dispensation,  like  to  which  nothing  can 
be  found  in  our  world,  like  to  which  even  Judaism  supplied  nothing  as 
to  its  model,  its  meaning  and  its  motives.  It  is  the  great  law  of  the 
Christian  dispensation :  "  This  is  my  commandment,"  said  the  Savior 
—  mine  emphatically  —  "  that  ye  love  one  another."  It  is  the  badge 
of  discipleship  :  "  By  this  shall  all  men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples, 
if  ye  love  one  another."  Philosophers  and  teachers  had  given  to  their 
disciples  some  peculiar  sentiments  or  mark.  Says  Christ,  Love  shall 
be  the  badge  of  my  disciples  ;  and  let  that  man  be  accounted  an  im- 
postor, a  pretender,  a  hypocrite,  whatever  else  he  may  have,  who  has 
not  my  mark  upon  him,  and  is  not  distinguished  by  love  to  his  breth- 
ren. 

Such,  brethren,  is  love.  How  excellent !  Love,  without  any  sel- 
fish, interested  ally,  neither  darkened  by  hatred  nor  shaded  by  caprice, 
is  an  attribute  which  pertains  to  Deity,  and  that  which  sums  up  all  the 
others.  This  fair  spirit  sits  enthroned  in  the  heavens,  where  she  lives 
as  a  principle  omnipotent,  an  element  Divine  ;  she  dwells  in  brightness 
and  in  eternity  with  the  Almiglity.  Her  music  is  the  song  of  the  an- 
gelic host,  the  sigh  of  the  sympathetic  spirit,  the  prayer- of  the  humble 
and  the  contrite,  the  gratitude  expressed  to  the  author  of  every  mercy, 
and  the  word  of  kindness  dropped  from  the  lip  of  charity.  Love  pre- 
vailed over  the  creation  of  the  world,  made  man  almost  an  angel,  and 
gave  him  as  his  residence  a  paradise  almost  a  heaven.  Love  preserves 
the  harmony  of  the  upper  sphere,  and  marks  out  the  progress  of  the 
soul  through  troubles  here,  and  immortality  hereafter.  Her  form  was 
seen,  her  voice  was  heard  on  earth,  when  the  Son  of  God  became  in- 
carnate ;  and  he  has  bequeathed  to  his  church,  as  an  inestimable  lega- 
cy, the  power  of  love,  as  the  essence  of  his  religion. 

But,  brethren,  is  there  all  this  beautiful  display  of  love  amongst  us 
that  there  should  be  ?  If  an  angel  that  knew  nothing  of  ecclesiastical 
history,  but  was  totally  unacquainted  with  all  the  details  of  its  darken- 


CHRISTIANITY   A   SYSTEM    OF   LOVE.  101 

ed  page,  and  knew  nothing  of  the  church  of  God,  but  that  it  was  a  com- 
pany of  men  and  women,  redeemed  by  the  precious  blood  of  him  who 
became  incarnate,  before  whose  throne  he  bowed,  regenerated  by  the 
same  Spirit  which  had  filled  his  heavenly  mind  with  holiness,  and  des- 
tined for  that  blessed  world,  from  which  he  had  dropped  down  upon 
men  —  I  say,  if  such  a  visitant  came  among  us,  what  kind  of  beings 
would  he  expect  to  see  in  men  and  women  thus  circumstanced  ?  Would 
he  not  look  that  they  should  appear  as  so  many  sparkling  forms  of  pure, 
bright  love,  so  cemented  to  one  another  by  their  common  love  to  their 
Divine  Father  and  his  to  them,  as  that  they  should  scai-cely  have  any 
separate  interest,  inchnation,  or  will  —  all  filled  with  the  most  compla- 
cent benignity  one  towards  another,  each  contributing  to  the  happiness 
of  all,  and  all  building  up  the  happiness  of  each  ;  who  though  perad- 
venture  they  may  not  in  all  things  think  alike,  nor  be  marshalled  under 
the  banner  of  one  particular  regiment,  yet  would  never  allow  their  dif- 
ferences to  embitter  their  hearts,  or  to  alienate  their  affections  one  from 
another  ;  in  short,  would  he  not  expect  to  find  in  our  world  so  many 
pieces  of  immortal  glory,  flashing  the  lustre  of  that  world  from  which 
he  himself  came  ?  Alas  !  what  grief  he  would  feel,  what  disappoint- 
ment he  would  experience,  at  hearkening  to  the  bitter  controversy  and 
witnessing  the  wide  alienation  of  professing  Christians  !  Would  he  not 
conclude  that  he  had  lost  his  way,  mistaken  his  world,  lighted  upon 
some  other  abode  than  that  to  which  he  had  directed  his  course.  Would 
he  not  say,  I  came  in  search  of  the  blood-bought  church,  the  love-ce- 
mented multitude  ;  and  do  you  mean  to  say  that  this  is  it  ?  Is  it  for 
this  divided,  discordant  church,  the  Son  of  God  died  upon  the  cross  ? 
Oh  !  where  is  the  fruit  of  his  agony,  the  answer  of  his  prayer  ?  Breth- 
ren, do  we  not  deserve  the  rebuke  ?  does  not  the  reproach  lie  upon  us  ? 
God  helping  us,  we  will  put  it  away.  '  But  is  it  not  true,  that  the  bitter 
and  thorny  aloe  of  Christian  contention  is  quite  full  blown  upon  the 
steps  of  the  Christian  temple  ?  Is  it  not  true,  that  the  nettle  and  the 
bramble  grow  luxuriantly  in  its  course  ?  Is  it  not  true,  that  birds  of 
discordant  notes  utter  their  screams  around  ?  Well,  thanks  to  Jeho- 
vah, we  are  beginning,  I  trust,  to  displace  these  plants  of  deformity, 
and  to  raise  in  their  room  the  myi'tle,  the  fir-tree,  and  the  olive,  from 
whence  the  voice  of  the  turtle,  the  emblem  of  peace,  shall  be  heard 
through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  So  that  ere  long,  if  an- 
other visitant  come  to  our  world  in  search  of  the  blood-bought  multi- 
tude, the  love-cemented  church,  we  shall  be  able  to  present  to  him 
something  that  will  not  disappoint  him,  cause  him  to  droop  his  wings, 
and  to  go  back  to  his  heaven  with  a  dejected  countenance. 


1(^  TIIE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

II.  Now,  brethren,  let  us  consider,  secondly,  one  or  two  reasons, 
why  the  different  denominations  of  evangelical  Christians  should  exer- 
cise this  love  one  towards  another. 

And,  in  the  first  place,  is  there  not  an  agreement  in  our  views  of  the 
fundamental  docti'ines  of  Christianity  ?  Do  we  not  hold  the  inspiration 
and  the  sufficiency  of  the  Scriptures,  the  Divine  Trinity  of  Persons  in 
the  essence  of  the  Godhead,  the  incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  the 
atonement  and  salvation  of  the  world,  the  great  Protestant  doctrine  of 
justification  by  faith,  the  regeneration  and  sanctification  of  the  human 
soul  by  the  Spirit,  and  the  necessity  of  holiness  as  the  evidence  of  real 
faith  ?  What !  shall  I  hold  back  from  the  Episcopalian  who  with  me 
acknowledges  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  because  his  views  of  church 
government  differ  from  mine  ?  Shall  I  refuse  my  hand  to  the  Presby- 
terian because  he  thinks  the  church  should  be  governed  by  elders,  by 
the  many,  instead  of  each  particular  congregation  being  independent ; 
while  at  the  same  time  he  believes  the  incarnation  and  atonement  of 
Christ  ?  Shall  I  refuse  communion  with  my  Methodist  brethren,  be- 
cause they  do  not  see  with  me  in  the  doctrine  of  election,  and  the  per- 
severance of  the  saints  ;  while  I  see  eye  to  eye  with  them  on  the  doc- 
trine of  justification  by  faith  and  regeneration  by  the  Spirit?  Shall  I 
scowl  on  the  Baptist,  because  he  refuses  to  receive  children  at  the  font ; 
while  at  the  same  time  he  holds  with  me  all  the  fundamental  truths  of 
Christianity  ?  Brethren,  if  I  retire  from  a  man,  because  of  a  differ- 
ence of  minor  importance,  do  not  I  disparage  the  grand  principles  of 
agreement  and  set  the  minor  ones  above  them  ?  If  I  do  not  hold  com- 
munion with  him,  because  we  differ  in  small  things,  am  I  not  thereby 
throwing  discredit  on  the  great  and  fundamental  doctrines  of  God's 
blessed  word  ? 

But  this  is  not  all :  the  great  evangelical  body,  in  all  its  divisions, 
are  agreed,  secondly,  in  views  of  personal,  vital,  and  experimental  re- 
ligion. Philosophers  may  be  united  on  the  principles  of  science,  be- 
cause science  has  no  necessary  connexion  with  the  state  of  the  heart, 
and  does  not  necessarily  depend  for  evidence  on  the  state  of  the  heart. 
But  the  doctrines  of  Christianity  do  ;  they  are  not  like  the  aurora  la- 
realis  floating  in  the  pure  regions  of  the  atmosphere,  but  doing  nothing 
for  the  fertilizing  of  the  globe.  The  doctrines  of  the  gospel  are  not 
like  gems  in  a  cabinet,  deposited  there  for  show,  and  not  for  use ;  they 
are  all  vital  principles  of  action  —  means  of  sanctification.  And,  ray 
dear  Methodist  brethren,  here  we  are  one.  You  and  I  agree  most 
perfectly  that  no  man  is  a  Christian  because  he  was  born  in  a  land  so 
called  ;  and  that  no  man  becomes  a  Christian  by  mere  baptism.  We 
hold  together  the  religion  of  the  affections  ;  we  hold  the  necessity  of 


CHRISTIANITY   A   SYSTEM   OF  LOVE.  103 

"joy  and  peace  in  believing,"  as  the  evidences  of  faith;  we  hold  in 
common  the  witness  of  the  Holv  Spirit,  either  direct  or  indirect,  or 
both  ;  and  therefore,  in  all  the  principles  of  experimental  and  vital  re- 
ligion, we  are  one,  and  are  called  upon,  in  the  exercise  of  love,  to 
"  serve  one  another," 

Again :  we  ai-e  engaged  in  a  common  work,  and  through  Divine 
grace  are  blessed  with  a  common  success.  Yes ;  what  are  we  about  ? 
Striving  one  and  all  to  bring  into  execution  the  plans  of  the  eternal 
mind,  in  reference  to  our  world  ;  to  carry  into  application  the  death  of 
the  Son  of  God  upon  the  cross  ;  to  fulfil  the  purpose  for  which  the 
Spirit  is  poured  out  from  on  high,  and  the  Scriptures  are  written.  And 
we  have  all  done  something  for  this. 

Brethren,  I  honor  you.  You  have  carried  the  lamp  of  salvation  in- 
to almost  every  nook  and  dark  corner  of  our  land  ;  you  have  covered 
the  country  with  your  chapels  ;  your  patriotism  is  seen  in  your  piety  — 
in  what  you  are  doing  for  the  country.  Then  I  turn  my  attention  from 
home  to  foreign  parts.  You  have  aided  to  burst  the  manacles  which 
fettered  the  slave,  and  to  give  liberty  to  a  hundred  thousand  believers 
in  the  West  Indies.  In  connexion  with  your  Baptist  brethren,  and 
that  illustrious  man,  whose  name  in  your  kindred  society  will  to-morrow 
be  mentioned  in  tones  of  grief  and  with  tears  of  sorrow,  you  have  done 
more  ;  for  you  have  given  the  liberty,  wherewith  Christ  makes  his  peo- 
ple free,  to  these  slaves,  as  they  were  once  in  the  body.  I  view  your 
progress  in  New  Zealand,  Polynesia,  and  South  Africa,  with  gratitude 
and  delight.  I  look  upon  that  splendid  blossom  of  missionary  hope  and 
prospect,  your  mission  upon  the  Gold  Coast  of  Western  Africa.  I  turn 
to  Ceylon,  and  to  other  parts  of  the  world,  and  thank  God  for  the  to- 
kens of  his  favor,  which  he  has  granted  you  there.  We,  brethren, 
have  done  something  mighty  ;  there  is  no  room  for  jealousy —  none  for 
envy.  And  here,  on  the  ground  of  common  success,  is  a  reason  for 
our  loving  and  serving  one  another.  When  Cowper,  the  poet  of  pa- 
thos and  piety,  was  recovering  from  that  direful  malady  under  which 
he  suffered  from  the  hand  of  God,  and  in  public  worship  was  acknowl- 
edging his  thankfulness  to  the  Author  of  his  mercy,  in  the  same  pew 
there  sat  with  him  an  individual,  whose  heartfelt  gratitude  was  over- 
flowing in  a  hymn  of  praise,  in  which  he  seemed  so  heartily  to  join,  that, 
says  Cowper, "  I  could  not  help  saying  in  my  heart,  bless  you  for  prais- 
ing him  thus,  whom  I  so  much  love."  I  catch  the  sentiment,  and  I 
say  to  my  Methodist  brethren,  bless  you  for  all  you  have  done  for  that 
dear  Savior  whom,  without  presumption,  I  dare  affirm  I  love.  And  I 
doubt  not,  dear  friends,  that  the  response  will  come  back  from  your 


104  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

society  to  ours,  and  we  shall  bless  one  another,  and  God  for  each  oth 
er,  for  what  we  ai-e  doing  together. 

III.  Now,  thirdly,  I  go  on  to  consider  in  what  kind  of  service  we 
are  to  manifest  our  love  to  each  other,  as  different  denominations. 

And  here,  my  brethren,  I  advocate  nothing  latitudinarian  ;  I  ask  for 
no  compromise  ;  for  as  long  as  denominational  differences  exist,  there 
must  be  denominational  preferences.  And  we  love  our  denominations, 
because  each  of  us  deem  them  most  accordant  with  the  word  of  God, 
and  there  is  the  ground  of  our  love  to  them.  I  am  no  advocate  for  that 
spurious  philosophy,  which  sprung  up  some  forty  or  fifty  years  ago, 
which  proposed  to  build  a  system  of  universal  benevolence  upon  the  de- 
struction of  individual  tenderness  ;  as  if  we  could  love  the  whole  more, 
by  loving  each  particular  part  of  it  less.  The  order  of  nature  is  to  pro-' 
ceed  from  species  to  genus,  from  individual  to  generality,  from  that 
which  is  near  to  that  which  is  remote.  Every  man,  by  taking  care  of 
bis  own  soul  first,  is  better  prepared  to  take  care  of  the  souls  of  others  ; 
he  who  looks  well  to  his  own  family  is  contributing  to  the  well-being  of 
the  country  ;  the  farmer  that  takes  care  of  distant  fields  is  expected, 
first  of  all,  to  begin  with  his  own  ;  and  so  we  are  expected,  in  our  love 
to  the  universal  church,  to  begin  with  that  section  of  it  to  which  we 
may  each  respectively  belong.  Therefore  I  ask  for  no  relinquishment 
of  attachment  or  attention  to  that  particular  part  of  the  great  family  of 
God  to  which  we  belong  ;  but  I  ask,  that  we  engage  in  all  those  exer- 
cises for  each  other,  by  which  we  can  manifest  our  love,  and  serve  each 
other  without  in  the  smallest  degree  injuring  that  part  of  the  church 
with  which  we  are  more  intimately  connected. 

And  how  shall  we  do  this  ?  By  purifying  our  controversies  from  all 
wrath,  malice,  un charitableness  and  evil  speaking ;  by  avoiding  all  mis- 
representation of  each  other's  sentiments,  caricaturing  each  other's  sys- 
tems, or  deducing  from  each  other's  principles  inferences  which  we 
should  repudiate  with  abhorrence  ;  by  being  careful  not  to  exaggerate 
the  points  on  which  we  differ,  till  we  seem  to  make  them  of  equal  con- 
sequence with  those  on  which  we  agree  — which,  to  my  idea,  seems  to 
be  the  very  essence  of  sectarianism  ;  by  doing  nothing  to  each  other 
which  may  lower  us  in  public  opinion ;  by  rooting  out  all  the  prejudices 
of  education  and  of  sect,  by  extinguishing  all  envy  of  each  other's  suc- 
cess ;  by  abstaining  from  all  suspicion  and  doubt  as  to  the  sincerity  of 
each  other's  motives ;  by  refraining  from  all  underhand  proselyting, 
and  by  not  exposing  each  other's  weaknesses  ;  and,  may  I  now  say,  by 
embracing  that  discovery  of  modern  charity,  that  what  affects  the  whole 
affects  each  part,  that  what  strengthens  the  body  strengthens  each 


CHRISTIANITY   A   SYSTEM   OF   LOVE.  105 

limb,  and  that  what  weakens  that  body,  weakens  each  member.  If 
Poperj  and  Infidelity  triumph,  it  is  at  the  common  expense  of  us  all ; 
if  a  cloud  of  reproach  hang  over  the  church  of  God  generally,  the 
cold,  chiUing  and  withering  power  of  it  will  be  felt  by  each  of  us. 
And  what  cloud  is  so  dark,  what  is  so  withering,  as  the  dissensions  of 
the  Christian  church  ?  Infidelity,  like  a  vulture,  scents  the  smell  of 
battle  from  afar,  directs  her  course  to  the  field  of  conflict,  and  gorges 
and  fattens  on  the  blood  of  the  combatants.  Popery,  hke  the  witches 
and  the  wizards  of  the  dark  ages,  carries  on  her  incantations  amidst 
the  uproar  of  the  elements,  and  the  storms  that  are  raging.  Brethren, 
let  us  disappoint  the  appetite  of  the  vulture,  and  the  malice  of  the  wiz- 
ard ;  let  us  come  closer  to  each  other ;  let  us  come  nearer  and  nearer, 
for  our  common  defence  and  for  our  common  sympathy.  "  Divide  and 
conquer,"  is  that  watchword  which  was  handed  up  from  hell  by  Satan 
to  his  emissaries ;  "  Unite  and  resist,"  is  the  counterword  which  heav- 
en gives  to  us  all.  And  then,  brethren, — to  make  it  bear  upon  the  pres- 
ent object  of  our  meetmg,  —  "  union  is  strength,"  inasmuch  as  the  divid- 
ed state  of  the  Christian  world  appears  to  me  to  be  one  of  the  mightiest 
obstacles  in  existence  to  the  conversion  of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom.  God 
will  not  employ  his  church  to  bring  on  the  millennium,  till  that  church 
is  more  harmonious.  We  must  be  calm,  dignified,  tranquil,  holy,  peace- 
ful, to  be  fit  for  the  great  work  to  which  God  has  called  us.  He  em- 
ploys the  graces,  and  not  the  furies,  to  fulfil  his  purposes  of  mercy  to 
mankind.  Like,  then,  the  tribes  of  Israel,  each  bearing  its  own  stand- 
ard, but  all  collecting  round  the  ark,  let  us  move  onward,  all  standing 
together  under  the  cooling  shadow  of  the  cloudy  pillar,  and  reflecting 
together  the  brilliant  splendors  of  the  fiery  symbol  that  led  the  conse- 
crated host  through  the  wilderness.  Depend  upon  it,  a  harmonized 
church  must  be  the  precursor  of  a  converted  world  ;  and,  to  my  cyo, 
one  of  the  brightest  signs  of  the  times,  one  of  the  most  decisive  marks 
that  God  is  about  to  bless  us  all  in  advancing  his  cause  on  the  earth  is, 
that  he  is  bringing  us  all  nearer  to  each  other. 

But  this  is  not  all :  we  must  serve  each  other  by  reciprocal  help  in 
pecuniary  matters.  Oh !  say  some,  I  cannot  in  conscience  subscribe 
my  money  to  a  society  that  propagates  what  I  consider  to  be  error.  I 
doubt,  my  brethren,  this  is  rather  the  logic  of  the  pocket,  than  of  the 
conscience  ;  because,  upon  the  ground  of  the  objector,  I  would  say, 
you  will  admit  there  is  more  truth  than  there  is  error  in  this  denomi- 
nation which  seeks  your  support ;  one  part  error,  perhaps,  and  nine- 
teen parts  truth  ;  and  then,  if  you  will  not  give  your  money  to  propar 
gate  error,  you  should  give  your  money  to  propagate  truth ;  and,  sure- 
ly, the  nineteen  parts  have  a  greater  claim  upon  your  support  than  the 


106  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

one  part  Is  repellent.  Besides,  the  man  that  argues  thus,  should  be 
quite  sure  that  he  is  infallible,  and  that  there  is  no  subtle  mixture  of 
error  in  anything  of  his  OAvn  ;  and  few  of  us,  I  suppose,  claim  infalli- 
bility. • 

Then,  again,  let  us  "  serve  one  another,"  by  advocating  each  oth- 
er's cause.  Of  all  the  sights  in  our  divided,  discordant  world,  there  is 
scarcely  any  one  more  gratifying  to  me,  than  to  see  a  semicircle  of 
members  and  ministers  of  all  denominations^  collected  round  the  presi- 
dential chair  of  him  who  acts  as  the  medium  of  our  union  and  commun- 
ion at  a  public  meeting.  Every  missionary  platform  ought  to  be  a 
communion-table,  where  all  the  followers  of  Christ  shoidd  meet  in  the 
blessed  fellowship  and  the  sweet  comfort  of  love.  And  what  applies  to 
the  platform,  applies  equally  to  the  pulpit.  We  should  be  always  ready 
to  advocate  each  other's  missions  ;  and  angels  must  rejoice  over  every 
instance  of  this  kind,  as  repelling  the  taunt  of  the  infidel,  and  the  scoff 
of  the  Papist,  who  in  sarcasm  tell  us,  that  our  missionary  schemes  are 
like  many  bubbles  of  enthusiasm,  blown  by  bigots,  followed  by  fools, 
and  that  they  will  explode  by  the  expansive  force  of  their  own  absurd- 
ity ;  mere  schemes  of  selfishness,  to  set  up  our  denominations  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  world,  to  the  neglect  or  opposition  of  others.  Foul 
spirits  of  darkness,  you  lie.  Our  object  is  not  sectarian,  but  Christian; 
and  all  of  us  have  been  the  happy  instruments  of  converting  myriads  of 
men  and  women  "  from  the  error  of  their  ways,"  and  translating  them 
with  robes  washed  white  and  clean  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  to  the  king- 
dom of  our  Father.  We  know  to-night  —  we  feel  it,  and  we  exhibit  it 
—  "  how  good  and  how  pleasant  it  is,  for  brethren  to  dwell  together  in 
unity." 

But  now,  brethren,  permit  me  to  advance  a  few  motives  for  this  re- 
ciprocal exercise  of  love  and  service. 

And,  in  the  first  place,  as  a  motive  to  "love"  and  "serve  one 
another,"  I  mention,  that  in  doing  so,  we  serve  one  common  master. 
Who  is  that  ?  Not  Wesley,  Whitfield,  Calvin,  or  Luther,  but  that  dear 
friend  of  sinners,  before  whose  throne  they  are  casting  down  their 
crowns  at  this  moment,  and  would  have  us  cast  down  ours.  Yes,  we 
go  to  exhibit  the  mighty  magnet  of  the  cross,  and  draw  men  to  Christ, 
that  we  may  make  men  Christians.  Yes,  Christian  is  their  surname, 
whatever  baptismal  name  we  give  them  in  addition.  We  go  to  carry 
together  —  (is  it  not  so  ?)  —  the  ark  of  the  covenant  into  the  dark 
realms  of  Paganism  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  Mahometanism  on  the 
other.  We  go  on,  bearing  the  sacred  vessel,  responsively  singing,  as 
we  bear  it  onward,  "  The  world  for  Christ !  "  Angels  catch  the  sound, 
and  respond,  "  The  world  for  Christ ! "     Devils,  in  despair,  groan 


CHRISTIANITY   A  SYSTEM   OF  LOVE.  107 

forth  the  echo,  "  The  world  for  Christ !  "  God,  in  the  purpose  of  his 
power  and  of  his  mercy,  seals  the  decree,  and  says,  "  The  world  for 
Christ."     In  serving  one  another,  then,  we  sei^ve  Christ. 

Secondly,  in  serving  one  another,  we  accomplish  the  same  great 
object.  And  what  is  that  object  ?  Not,  brethren,  to  turn  men  from 
one  set  of  opinions  to  another,  without  turning  them  to  God  ;  not  get- 
ting them  to  renounce  the  ceremonies  of  one  religion  to  take  up  the 
ceremonies  of  another  religion,  without  worshipping  God  in  the  spirit, 
and  serving  Christ  Jesus,  and  having  "  no  confidence  in  the  flesh." 
This  would  not  be  worth  our  pains,  nor  the  money  we  have  been  ex- 
pending. No,  brethren,  our  object  is  to  turn  men  to  God ;  and  there- 
fore, whoever  serves  another  serves  himself,  so  far  as  the  accomplish- 
ment of  his  object  is  concerned. 

Again  :  we  employ  the  same  means.  What  are  these  ?  Education 
for  the  children,  preaching  for  the  adults,  fellowship  for  the  converts. 
No  crucifixes,  no  rehcs,  no  trumpery  of  Popery,  no  Jesuitical  tricks, 
no  Romish  ceremonies,  no  holy  water,  no  baptizing  children  stealthily, 
no  smuggling  in  priests  under  the  disguise  of  carpenters,  no  ships  of 
war,  no  steamers  bearing  cannon,  no  grape-shot  fired  upon  poor  defence- 
less women  and  children,  no  Tahitian  bloodshed,  perfidy  and  treachery; 
we  leave  these  things  to  Popery,  it  is  worthy  of  them,  and  they  of  it. 
We  carry  God's  blessed  Word.  We  send  the  truth  by  men  who  un- 
derstand and  feel  it  —  who  appeal  to  the  understanding  ;  to  the  intel- 
lect by  reasoning,  to  the  heart  by  persuasion,  to  the  conscience  by  all 
the  force  of  those  great  motives  which  are  evolved  in  the  truth.  We 
go  to  evangelize,  and  to  bring  civilization  in  its  train.  Brethren,  we 
do  all  this  ;  and  therefore  these  are  motives  to  "  serve  one  another." 
Our  means  are  alike.  We  carry  not  the  edicts  of  monarchs,  the  de- 
crees of  councils,  the  traditions  of  men ;  we  carry  not  the  institutes  of 
fellow-creatures  as  the  supreme  authority ;  we  go  to  make  the  Bible 
the  book  of  the  world  even  as  it  was  given  to  the  world,  we  go  under 
the  warrant  of  the  command  of  Jesus  Christ  to  "  preach  the  gospel  to 
every  creature,"  and  guide  our  conduct  in  all  things  by  the  acts  of  the 
apostles.  And  therefore  there  is  no  reason  for  suspecting  each  other ; 
none  for  standing  aloof.  We  may  compare  our  prospects,  the  most 
secret  as  well  as  the  most  pubhc,  and  we  shall  find  that  as  honest  men 
we  can  "  serve  one  another,"  for  we  are  pursuing  the  same  object  un- 
der the  same  means. 

I  have  only  one  thing  more  ;  and  that  is,  we  anticipate  the  same 
result.  Very  few  of  us  are  wholly  taken  up  with  the  idea,  though  in 
our  musings  we  may  dwell  upon  the  subject,  that  our  denomination  is 
to  be  the  religion  of  the  millennium.     Perhaps,  my  brethren,  God  may 


108  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

intend  to  take  us  all  to  pieces,  and  make  none  of  our  religions  exactly 
that  of  the  latter- day  glory,  but  bring  out  a  new  and  a  more  perfect 
system  than  any  of  us  have  yet  attained  to.  But  without  troubhng 
ourselves  as  to  what  denomination  is  to  prevail  in  the  latter-day  glory, 
it  is  enough  for  us  to  know  that  there  is  to  be  a  latter-day  glory  — 
that  there  is  to  be  a  millennium,  in  which  Christianity  shall  cover  the 
earth  in  its  purest  and  brightest  form.  And  the  man  who  in  the  fore- 
sight of  the  downfall  of  Popery,  Paganism,  Mahometanism,  Judaism 
and  Infidelity,  and  the  raising  up  of  Christianity  upon  their  ruins, 
holds  his  heart  in  abeyance  till  he  has  ascertained,  if  he  can,  whether 
it  is  his  denomination  that  is  to  prevail,  —  who,  in  imagination  listening 
to  the  shouts  of  a  renovated  world,  while  heaven  and  earth  are  res- 
ponding to  each  other,  "  Alleluia,  for  the  Lord  God  omnipotent  reign- 
eth  1 "  determines  not  to  echo  the  song  till  he  can  ascertain  whether  it 
is  raised  by  Methodist,  or  Episcopahan,  or  Presbyterian,  or  Congrega- 
tional voices,  or  he  who  watches  "  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth  " 
emerging  out  of  the  moral  chaos  of  our  world,  refuses  to  rejoice  before 
he  has  ascertained  whether  his  party  is  then  to  be  dominant,  may  be  a 
sectarian,  but  he  cannot  be  a  Christian. 

Friends  of  Immanuel,  friends  of  your  species,  friends  of  your  Bible, 
in  the  hope  and  the  prospect  of  our  regenerated,  redeemed  world,  in 
which,  under  the  peaceful  sceptre  of  Jesus,  the  earth  shall  be  deliv- 
ered from  slavery,  from  tyranny,  and  from  war,  —  when  commerce 
shall  be  purified  from  its  stupidity,  literature  from  its  pride,  and  phi- 
losophy from  its  scepticism ;  do  not  stand  calculating  or  conjecturing 
who  are  to  do  this,  and  how  it  is  to  be  accomplished  !  Brethren,  we 
are  all  to  do  it,  and  God  will  honor  us  all ;  and  when  our  world  shall 
be  illuminated,  and  the  latter-day  glory  shall  come,  and  the  light  of 
heaven  shall  spread  over  the  earth,  it  will,  perhaps,  be  as  impossible  to 
say  who  has  done  most  to  accomplish  this,  as  it  is  to  say  which  of  those 
gas  lights  has  thrown  most  splendor  around  us  this  evening.  Here 
they  are  —  all  illuminating  the  place  together.  And  so  will  it  be  with 
respect  to  the  glory  of  that  period  to  which  our  attention  is  now  di- 
rected ;  we  shall  all  be  honored  of  God  to  do  something  to  bring  it  on, 
and  shall  praise  him  on  that  day,  not  only  for  what  we  have  done,  but 
for  what  others  have  done.  And  the  man  that  hushes  the  groans  of 
creation,  and  spreads  over  our  desolate  earth  the  verdure  of  moral 
vegetation,  shall  have  my  hand,  my  heart,  my  prayer,  my  adoring 
praise  and  gratitude  to  God,  however  I  may  differ  from  him  on  the 
subject  of  church  government,  the  ordinances  of  religion,  or  some  of 
the  minor  parts  of  Christianity.  In  the  prospect  of  the  millennium,  in 
which  "  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  is  to  cover  the  earth  as  the  waters 


CHRISTIANITY   A   SYSTEM   OF   LOVE.  109 

cover  the  cliannel  of  the  sea,"  I  see  enough  to  rejoice  In,  ■without  stay- 
ing to  ask  who  has  done  most  to  accomphsh  it,  or  Avhose  opinions  will 
then  most  widely  prevail. 

Mj  beloved  and  honored  brethren  in  the  ministry,  of  every  name 
and  denomination  that  may  be  present  here  this  evening,  bear  with  me 
while  I  give  utterance,  not  indeed  to  the  responses  of  oracular  Ayisdom, 
or  to  the  counsels  of  patriarchal  authority,  but  to  the  effusions  of  a 
brother's  heart,  anxious  for  your  success  and  for  his  own.  If  Christians 
are  to  be  "  the  light  of  the  world,"  we  are  to  be  the  light  of  the 
Church.  If  the  Church  is  to  be  "  the  salt  of  the  earth,"  we  are  to  be 
the  salt  of  the  Church.  Our  influence,  I  say,  —  although  I  seem  to 
magnify  my  office,  but  not  myself —  is  great,  and  our  responsibihty 
proportionate.  We  cannot  be  negative  characters.  The  pulpit,  raised 
as  it  is  between  the  law  on  the  one  hand  and  the  gospel  on  the  other, 
is  the  very  centre  of  the  moral  universe,  and  all  the  world  will  feel 
its  influence,  and  feel  it  through  all  the  ages  of  eternity.  There  is  a 
mighty  power  in  this  ministerial  and  pastoral  character,  more  than 
even  in  books.     Here  are  the 

"  Thoughts  that  breathe  and  words  that  burn." 

The  minister  in  earnest  awes  by  the  thunder  of  his  sermon,  delights 
by  its  music,  or  kindles  by  its  enthusiasm  the  souls  of  those  who  hear 
it.  There  is  an  addition  of  all  that  influence  which  we  carry  with  us 
in  the  private  circle,  where  a  single  remark  may  be  the  means  of  start- 
ing an  immortal  soul  on  a  career  of  glory,  never  to  end  for  ev^r  and 
ever  ;  or  may  sink  that  soul  down  to  the  bottomless  pit.  Oh  !  let  us 
consider  how  much  the  harmony  of  the  Church,  the  conversion  of  the 
world  depends  upon  us  !  In  one  sense,  though  in  a  very  different  one 
to  that  which  Tractarian  theology  contends  for,  we  are  the  channels 
through  which  the  blessing  of  God  descends  to  the  Church  and  to  the 
world.  Oh  !  let  us  take  care  how  we  choke  those  channels  by  indo- 
lence, negligence,  or  carelessness,  and  that  we  keep  them  open  by  min- 
isterial zeal,  fidelity  and  holiness.  Immortal  souls,  for  their  eternal 
destinies,  hang  upon  our  hands :  we,  in  reference  to  the  world,  retard 
or  accelerate  the  millennial  glory.  Oh  !  let  us  then,  in  these  eventful 
days,  look  up  to  God,  by  fasting  and  prayer,  that  we  be  not  found 
wanting  at  our  post !  Considerable  stir  has  been  made  of  late  about 
the  rising  ministry,  but  oh !  my  venerable  fathers  in  Christ,  is  it  not 
true  that  we  on  whom  the  snows  of  winter  are  descended,  who  have 
had  so  much  more  time  to  study  the  worth  of  souls,  the  value  of  divine 
truth,  the  importance  of  salvation,  the  terror  of  damnation,  and  the 
life  of  eternity,  are  more  wanting  even  than  some  of  our  younger 


110  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

brethren.  Oh !  that  God  would  help  us  all,  younger  or  older,  to  con- 
sider how  much  the  tone  and  temper  of  the  Church  depend  upon  us  — 
how  much  we  have  it  in  our  power  to  bring  Christians  closer  to  each 
other,  or  to  repel  them  to  a  wider  distance  !  May  we  all  consider, 
that  God  will  hold  us  responsible  for  what  we  do,  for  the  Church  and 
for  the  world  I  Upon  us  hang  the  interests  of  our  Master,  which  will 
flourish  or  decay  as  we  appeal  to  the  muids  and  hearts  and  consciences 
of  our  people.  May  God  lead  us  to  meditate  upon  these  tremendous 
truths ;  for  sometimes  it  does  appear  to  me  wonderful,  that  with  Such 
interests  hanging  upon  us,  we  can  be  so  light-hearted,  or  that  we  can 
find  any  rest  upon  our  beds,  when  such  interests  are  dependent  upon 
us.  May  the  Lord  God  grant  that  we  may  be  found  faithful  —  kind- 
ling the  purest  and  the  brightest  zeal  in  the  souls  of  our  hearers,  and 
aiding  onward,  as  our  duty,  our  honor,  and  our  privilege  is,  the  tri- 
umphal car  of  the  Redeemer,  who  is  going  forth  "  conquering  and  to 
conquer ! " 

Brethren,  what  need  I  say  to  you  on  the  subject  of  your  missions  ? 
As  to  their  nature,  their  importance,  their  extent,  and  at  the  same 
time  their  claims,  you  know  all  this  better  than  I  do.  God  has  great- 
ly honored  and  blessed  you.  Without  one  particle  of  envy,  without  a 
single  feeling  but  that  of  gratulation  and  thankfulness,  I  think  of  your 
more  than  £100,000  a-year,  for  the  support  of  your  missions.  I  can 
only  stand  and  wonder  and  adore.  You  leave  us  far  behind.  We 
wish  that  we  were  up  with  you,  but  we  do  not  for  a  moment  regret  that 
you  are  blessed  of  God  to  the  extent  of  your  liberality.  Go  on  and 
prosper.  You  have  missions  of  which  any  denomination  under  the 
sun  might,  (I  will  not  say  be  proud)  but  for  which  any  one,  and  every 
one  might  be  thankful.  To  whatever  part  of  the  vast  field  I  turn  my 
eyes,  I  see  every  thing  which  should  be  felt  by  you  as  a  motive  and 
stimulus  to  greater  zeal.  Look  at  the  West  Indies,  where  you  began ; 
what  wonders  has  the  Lord  achieved  by  you  there  !  Look  at  Ceylon  ; 
how  many,  in  that  eastern  part  of  the  world,  have  you  turned  from 
following  dumb  idols  to  serve  the  living  and  true  God  !  Look  at  your 
more  modern  missions  of  Polynesia ;  look  at  New  Zealand ;  look  at 
the  Fejees ;  in  all  those  spots  of  God's  world  you  see  motives  for 
thankfulness  and  increased  zeal.  May  the  Lord  bless  you  in  your 
mission  to  Africa ;  may  you  be  the  honored  instruments  of  carrying 
the  gospel  of  mercy  into  those  regions  that  "  are  full  of  the  habitations 
of  cruelty !  "  There  plant  the  standard  of  the  cross,  amidst  those 
pyramids  of  human  skulls,  and  other  marks  of  ferocity,  which  have 
troubled  the  feelings  and  inspired  the  zeal  of  your  missionaries.  Go 
on,  brethren ;  you  have  reached  a  pitch  which  might  lead  any  body  tc 


I 


CHKISTIANITT   A   SYSTEM   OF   LOVE.  Ill 

suppose  that  it  needs  no  stimulus,  and  admits  of  no  increase  ;  but  the 
Methodist  body  will  repudiate  the  idea  of  not  looking  for  any  increase. 
It  would  be  as  bold  an  attempt  for  any  man  to  fix  the  ne  plus  ultra  of 
Methodist  zeal  as  it  would  be  to  fix  the  7ie  plus  ultra  of  scientific  re- 
search and  attainment.  Halt,  is  not  a  word  which  your  leaders  are 
accustomed  to  give  to  those  who  follow  them ;  to  retrogade  is  not  a 
motion  which  their  followers  are  accustomed  to  make.  Onward  !  is 
the  cry.  Your  missionaries  abroad  give  the  sound,  and  friends  at 
home  echo  it  here.  Brethren,  perhaps  it  will  startle  you  when  I  say, 
that  you  could,  if  you  would,  raise  another  .£100,000  to  that  which 
you  have  raised.  Oh  !  go  forward,  that  we,  peradventure,  may  have 
our  zeal  kindled  and  warmed  by  you. 

There  are  four  questions,  which  in  conclusion,  I  would  put  to  you — 
may  you  not  do  more  —  can  you  not  do  more  —  ouglit  you  not  to  do 
more  —  and  will  you  not  do  more  ? 

3Iay  you  not,  when  the  world  is  all  before  you,  and  Providence 
your  God  ;  when  there  is  no  limit,  but  that  which  your  means  impose 
upon  your  efforts ;  when  doors  are  opening  m  every  part  of  the  world, 
and  voices  from  heaven  and  the  earth  are  saying,  "  Come  and  help 
us  ?  "  Go  and  help  them.  You  can  do  more.  Where  is  the  man, 
except  he  be  among  the  pooi^st  in  society,  who  will  rise  and  say,  with 
all  his  luxuries  or  comforts  that  Providence  has  bestowed  upon  him, 
that  he  can  do  no  more  ?  Can  is  a  mighty  word,  and  cannot  is  a 
fearful  one  for  any  man  to  utter  in  reference  to  duty.  What  you  can 
do,  ought  you  not  to  do  ?  Can  the  word  ought  be  measured  by  any 
other  limit  than  the  word  can  ?  What  you  ouglit  to  do,  that  ^oill  you 
not  do  ?  ^len  are  afraid  of  that  word  will,  as  if  it  belonged  only  to 
Omnipotence,  and  was  the  fiat  of  the  Creator.  Brethren,  it  is  a  law- 
ful word ;  we  find  it  in  the  Scripture ;  and  let  every  man  say.  By 
God's  grace  I  ivill  do  what  I  ought  to  do.  I  ougM  to  do  what  I  can 
do,  and  from  this  hour  I  will  study  the  meaning,  and  act  under  the 
potency  of  the  questions  that  have  been  submitted  this  night  to  me. 

Brethren,  I  have  done.  I  thi'ow  this  offering  upon  the  altar  of  your 
cause,  with  one  regret  —  and  only  one  —  that  it  is  not  more  worthy 
of  the  cause  of  the  people  of  God  I  have  come  kere  to-night  to  advo- 
cate. 


112  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

S  E  11  M  0  N    IX. 

THE   GREAT  THEME   OP  THE   CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY. 
BY   J  ADEZ    BURNS,    D.  D. 
''  For  I  determined  not  to  know  any  thing  among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ,and  him  crucified." 

1   CoRIIfTHIAHS,    ii.  3. 

The  apostle  Paul  was  eminently  a  man  of  one  subject,  and  that  sub- 
ject was  Christ ;  Christ  in  his  person,  work,  offices  and  glory.  He 
made  this  evident  by  his  preaching,  for  immediately  after  the  record 
of  his  conversion,  it  is  added,  "  And  straightway  he  preached  Christ 
in  the  synagogues,  that  he  is  the  Son  of  God."  —  Acts  ix.  20.  This 
too  was  his  theme  at  Antioch,  in  Inconium,  to  the  jailer  and  others  at 
Philippi,  at  Corinth,  and  in  Thessalonica.  Before  the  apostle  finished 
his  eloquent  oration  to  the  Athenians,  he  amiounced  the  doctrine  of 
the  resurrection,  and  the  judgment  of  the  world  by  Christ  Jesus. — 
Acts  xvii.  31.  In  harmony  with  these  statements  was  the  apostle's 
noble  avowal,  that  if  he  visited  imperial  Rome,  he  would  go  unto  them 
in  the  fulness  of  the  blessing  of  the  gospel  of  Christ.  Not  only  do 
we  see  the  apostle's  one  subject  from  the  topics  of  his  constant  preach- 
ing, but  also  from  the  uniform  tenor  of  his  epistles.  Hence,  writing 
to  the  church  at  Colosse,  he  refers  to  Christ,  in  them,  the  hope  of 
glory,  whom,  says  he,  "  we  preach."  To  the  Philippians  he  declares 
that  he  "  accounted  all  things  but  loss  for  the  excellency  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  Christ  Jesus  his  Lord."  He  declared  to  the  brethren  in  Ga- 
latia,  that  he  would  not  glory  in  any  thing,  save  in  the  cross  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  So  when  he  wrote  his  second  letter  to  the  Co- 
rinthians, he  observes  with  peculiar  emphasis,  "  We  preach  not  our- 
selves, but  Christ  Jesus  the  Lord ;  and  ourselves  your  servants  for 
Jesus'  sake."  So  in  the  striking  language  of  the  text:  "For  I  de- 
termined not  to  know  any  thing  among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ,  and 
him  crucified."  Probably  the  idea  of  the  apostle  was,  that  in  his 
search  after  knowledge,  he  would  devote  his  chief  thoughts  and  time 
to  know  more  and  more  of  the  Savior,  and  that  as  an  apostle  commis- 
sioned to  preach  to  a  perishing  world,  he  would  make  the  Lord  Jesus 
and  his  cross  the  great  theme  of  his  ministry.  Noble  resolution !  — 
Evangelical  averment !  Worthy  of  him  who  had  been  so  marvellously 
converted  by  the  grace  of  Christ,  and  who  was  destined  to  be  one  of 
the  chiefest  of  the  apostles.  But  the  resolution  of  Paul  is  worthy  of 
every  Christian  minister.  Though  this  subject  was  the  grand  theme 
of  the  apostles  and  early  preachers  of  the  gospel,  it  is  still  as  fresh 


GREAT   THEME   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTRY.  113 

and  rich  and  all-essential  as  ever.  Let  us  then  endeavor  to  define  and 
illustrate  the  resolve  of  the  apostle,  and  then  ascertain  if  it  ])e  capa- 
ble of  vindication.     Let  us, 

I.  Define  and  illustrate  the  resolve  of  the  apostle. 

1.  He  could  not  mean  absolutely  that  he  tvould  not  preach  on  any 
other  subject.  For  he  did  preach  on  the  being  and  majesty  of  the 
Godhead,  and  his  infinitely  blessed  perfections.  He  did  preach  on 
the  wonders  of  creation,  and  the  -wisdom  and  bounty  of  divine  provi- 
dence. He  did  preach  on  the  fall  of  man ;  and  on  human  depravity, 
and  man's  utter  helplessness  and  misery.  He  did  preach  the  moral 
excellency  of  the  law,  and  its  design,  as  our  school-master,  to  bring  us 
to  Christ.  He  did  preach  the  doctrines  of  repentance,  and  obedient 
conformity  to  the  will  of  God.  He  did  preach  the  graces  and  virtues 
of  the  Chi'istian  character,  and  entire  hohness  of  heart  and  hfe.  He 
did  preach  on  death  and  judgment  and  eternity,  on  the  joys  of  heaven, 
and  the  terrors  of  the  wrath  to  come.     It  is  clear,  also, 

2.  That  he  did  not  mean  to  confitie  himself  only  to  the  great  fact 
of  ChnsVs  crucifixion.  His  language  is,  "  Christ,  and  him  crucified." 
Hence  we  find  that  he  dwelt  largely  on  the  Savior's  Godhead  and  di- 
vine glory.  He  insisted  on  the  sinlessness  of  his  humanity.  On  his 
resplendent  and  unparalleled  miracles.  His  teaching.  His  obedience 
unto  the  death.  His  ascension  and  perpetual  intercession.  His  regal 
glory  and  second  coming.     But  he  obviously  designed, 

3.  To  make  the  crucified  Redeemer  the  grand  leading  theme  of  his 
public  ministrations.  He  would  dwell  on  this  principally.  That  the 
facts  and  doctrines  of  the  cross  should  never  hold  a  subordinate,  but 
the  chief  place  in  his  discourse.  That  this  should  be  the  Alpha  and 
Omega  of  his  sermons.  The  great  Sun  and  Centre  around  which  all 
other  truths  should  revolve.  That  Christ  crucified  should  be  the  one 
foundation  on  which  he  would  endeavor  to  build  the  whole  structure 
of  the  Christian  system.  That  this  should  be  the  essential  feature, 
the  very  life  of  that  gospel  he  would  publish  to  the  world.  Hence  he 
writes  unto  the  Corinthian  brethren,  towards  the  conclusion  of  this 
epistle,  "  For  I  delivered  unto  you  first  of  all,  that  which  I  received, 
how  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins  according  to  the  Scnptures."  —  1 
Cor.  XV.  3.     The  i*esolve  in  the  text  evidently  implies, 

4.  That  Christ  crucified  should  be  declared  as  the  only  hope  of  the 
perishing  sinner.  He  would  make  known  this  truth  at  all  times  and  to 
all  men.  He  made  it  evident  that  he  pointed  the  apostate,  ruined  pin- 
ner only  to  the  Lamb  of  God,  which  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world. 
He  made  known  no  other  way  of  escape  from  the  wrath  to  come.  He  de- 


114  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

lighted  to  declare  that  it  was  a  "  faithful  saying  and  worthy  of  all  ac- 
ceptation, that  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners."  That 
he  "  had  tasted  death  for  every  man,"  and  "  gave  himself  a  ransom 
for  all,  to  be  testijSed  in  due  time."  0  yes,  these  were  the  truths  in 
connection  with  Christ's  crucifixion  the  apostle  rejoiced  to  proclaim.  It 
was  his  work  and  life  to  point  the  dying  sinner  to  the  cross  of  Christ. 
He  doubtless  intended, 

5.  Tltat  he  would  make  all  other  subjects  to  harmonize  ivith  this,  and 
to  terminate  in  it.  For  instance,  he  showed  hoAV  both  the  moral  and 
ceremonial  law  were  inefficient  to  save  the  transgressor,  and  that  the 
cross  only  could  do  what  neither  the  one,  nor  both  of  them  could  eflect. 
He  discoursed,  too,  on  Jewish  history,  that  he  might  explain  the  mean- 
ing of  the  various  types  and  ceremonies  of  that  people,  as  being  elu- 
cidated and  embodied  in  Christ.  That  Jesus  was  the  true  passover 
sacrificed  for  us.  That  he  was  the  real  bread  of  hfe  which  came  down 
from  heaven.  The  blessed  rock  from  which  gushed  forth  the  waters 
of  life  for  a  perishing  world.  The  apostle  also  often  quoted  from  the 
writings  of  the  prophets,  but  here  also  he  never  lost  sight  of  his  one  grand 
subject.  He  made  it  evident  that  Christ  was  the  sum  and  substance 
of  prophecy,  that  to  him  bare  all  the  prophets  witness.  That  Christ 
was  the  illustrious  personage  of  whom  INIoses  in  the  law  and  the  proph- 
ets had  written.  See  also  1  Peter  i.  10 — 12.  Thus  the  apostle  made 
Christ  and  his  cross  both  the  great  centre  and  end  of  his  ministry. 
But  the  declaration  of  the  text  also  included  the  idea  that  the  apostle 
would, 

6.  liefer  to  all  the  momentous  aspects  and  phases  of  Chris fs  cnv- 
dfixion.  In  this  he  would  dwell  on  the  death  of  Christ,  —  (1)  As 
the  work  of  Jewish  unbelief  and  malevolence,  by  which  as  a  nation 
they  had  filled  up  the  cup  of  their  iniquity.  They  had  often  sinned 
against  God  by  the  rejection  of  his  counsels,  and  the  persecution  of 
the  prophets.  God  had  sent  various  of  his  servants  unto  them,  but 
they  had  despised  their  message  and  put  them  to  death.  At  length 
he  said,  I  will  send  unto  them  my  Son,  for  they  will  reverence  him. 
But  when  Christ  appeared  in  their  midst,  they  said  this  is  the  heir, 
let  us  kill  him.  Hence  they  rejected  his  gracious  word  and  despised 
the  annunciations  of  his  love.  Though  he  did  such  works  and  ratified 
his  truth  by  such  signs  as  none  other  had  ever  done,  yet  they  despised 
him,  maltreated  him,  thirsted  with  bitterest  hate  and  envy  for  his 
blood,  and  at  length,  with  the  most  atrocious  wickedness,  they  put  him 
to  a  cruel  and  ignominious  death.  And  so  intent  were  they  on  this 
deed  of  unheard-of  baseness  and  violence,  that  they  pubUcly  preferred 
the  release  of  Barabbas  to  Jesus,  and  even  announced  to  the  world 


GREAT   THEME   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTRY.  115 

their  cheerful  readiness  that  the  blood  of  Christ  should  be  upon  them 
and  upon  their  children.  Peter  did  not  fail  with  the  utmost  fideUty  to 
charge  them  with  having,  by  wicked  hands,  crucified  and  slain  their 
own  Messiah,  the  Son  of  God.  —  Acts  ii.  22,  23.  How  the  impreca- 
tion they  uttered  in  reference  to  the  blood  of  Christ  has  been  fulfilled  ! 
How  it  has  rested  on  their  unbelieving  posterity  to  this  day  !  But 
the  apostle,  while  he  would  show  that  the  crucifixion  of  Christ  was  an 
act  of  unparalleled  wickedness,  yet  he  would  also  dwell  on  the  impor- 
tant truth  that  it  was,  (2)  The  execution  of  God's  own  design  in  his 
pm'poses  of  grace  towards  our  world.  Hence  Peter,  in  the  passage 
we  have  partially  quoted,  adds,  "  Him  bemg  delivered  by  the  determi- 
nate counsel  and  foreknowledge  of  God,  ye  have  taken,"  &c.  Hence 
the  apostle  often  dwelt  on  the  divine  intentions  in  reference  to  the  re- 
demption of  mankind,  and  on  the  wisdom  and  power  by  which  all 
events  were  controlled  in  reference  to  this  consummation.  God  laid  the 
foundation  of  his  merciful  designs  before  time  began  to  roll,  and  he 
overruled  the  voluntary  wickedness  of  the  Jews  for  their  accomplish- 
ment. He  would  declare  Christ  crucified,  (3)  As  an  act  of  unexam- 
pled love  and  grace  on  the  part  of  the  Lord  Jesus.  It  was  infinite 
compassion  and  love  which  prompted  the  Savior  to  undertake  the 
achievement  of  our  redemption.  It  was  this  love  that  constrained  him 
to  assume  our  humanity,  and  though  he  was  rich,  yet  caused  him  for 
our  sakes  to  become  poor.  And  how  poor,  what  tongue  can  declare  I 
It  was  this  love  that  was  embodied  in  his  incarnate  state,  that  was  ut- 
tered in  all  his  gracious  discourses,  exhibited  in  all  his  merciful  mira- 
cles, that  shone  with  such  pure  and  gentle  radiance  in  all  his  actions. 
It  was  this  that  led  him  to  endure  scorn  and  reproach,  that  made  him 
submissive  to  keenest  sufiering,  that  caused  him  to  drink  the  bitter  un- 
mixed cup  in  Gethsemane,  and  to  be  bathed  in  blood,  while  prostrated 
in  the  garden,  the  scene  of  his  agony.  It  was  love  that  led  him  to 
suffer  the  indignities  of  his  base  mock  trial,  and  to  expire  m  unutter- 
able pain  and  ignominy  on  the  accursed  tree.  A  greater  evidence  of 
love  he  could  not  display  than  by  laying  down  his  life  for  us.  Hence 
the  cross  was  the  grand  climacterical  display  of  the  love  of  Christ  to 
a  guilty  world.  Love,  deep,  intense,  infinite,  unsearchable  I  In  Christ 
crucified  was  thus  proclaimed  in  unmistakable  language  the  immeasur- 
able riches  of  his  grace.  But  the  cross  too  was  designed,  (4)  As  an 
exposition  of  the  benevolence  of  God.  Often  have  both  theologians 
and  poets  done  dishonor  to  the  Father  by  teaching  that  he  was  ren- 
dered propitious  and  merciful  through  the  work  of  the  Son.  That  he 
sat  upon  his  throne  arrayed  in  habiliments  of  flaming  wrath.  That  he 
was  intent  on  the  eternal  ruin  of  the  guilty  transgressor,  but  that  the 


116  I  THE   EXGLISH  PULPIT. 

Son,  more  pitiful  and  compassionate,  interposed,  and  thus  moved  God, 
bj  his  propitious  engagements,  to  clemency  and  love.  Nothing  can 
give  a  more  false  and  dishonorable  view  of  the  divine  character  than 
such  representations.  Such  views  are  at  utter  variance  with  the 
teachings  of  Christ  himself,  and  altogether  irreconcilable  with  the 
scheme  of  the  gospel.  Jesus  declares  that  "  God  so  loved  the  world 
that  he  gave  his  Son ;"  hence  the  gift  of  Christ  was  the  evidence,  the 
effect  of  his  own  original,  pure  and  spontaneous  love.  Christ  did  not 
come  to  obtain  his  clemency,  but  to  publish  and  demonstrate  it.  He 
came  as  the  grand, living  fact  of  God's  intense  love  toward  us  —  and 
greater  love  even  Deity  could  not  evince  than  in  not  withholding  his 
own  Son,  but  delivering  him  up  for  us  all.  God  had  shown  his  regards 
towards  us  in  the  gifts  of  nature  and  in  the  bounties  of  Providence, 
but  he  never  gave  so  bright  and  so  glorious  an  evidence  of  it,  as  in 
the  crucifixion  of  his  beloved  Son.  But  by  declaring  Christ  and  him 
crucified,  the  apostle  would  further  dwell,  (5)  On  the  extreme  evil  and 
malignity  of  sin,  and  the  spotless  hohness  of  God.  God  had  often  de- 
clared his  utter  detestation  of  all  sin.  In  the  sentence  passed  on  our 
first  parents,  and  in  their  expulsion  from  paradise.  In  the  evils  Avhich 
immediately  flowed  from  man's  transgression.  The  groaning  sterile 
earth,  the  diseases  of  the  body,  the  agonies  of  death  and  the  triumphs 
of  the  grave.  He  had  declared  his  abhorrence  of  moral  evil  in  the 
law  given  on  Sinai,  under  circumstances  of  peculiar  majesty  and  gran- 
deur. A  grandeur  so  awful  and  overwhelming  that  even  Moses,  with 
holy  alarm,  exclaimed,  "I  exceedingly  fear  and  quake;" — but  the 
clearest  manifestations  of  sin's  heinousness  and  extreme  turpitude  was 
reserved  for  the  cross,  when  God's  own  Son  should  expire  under  pecul- 
iar circumstances  of  grief  and  pain  and  ignominy,  as  the  only  sacri- 
fice by  which  atonement  could  be  made,  and  through  which  alone  the 
sinner  could  be  saved  from  it.  Even  hell,  with  its  darkness  and  wail- 
ing and  horror  and  endless  blackness  and  despair,  offers  not  so  striking 
a  declaration  of  the  infinite  evil  of  sin,  as  is  seen  in  the  crucifixion  of 
the  holy  and  ever-blessed  Son  of  God.  God  here  declared  in  terms 
which  it  is  impossible  to  mistake,  that  sin  was  so  desperately  evil  and 
so  entirely  contrary  to  his  holy  nature,  and  righteous  laws,  and  equita- 
ble government,  that  it  could  only  be  effaced  by  the  offering  up  as  the 
great  sacrifice,  the  Lord  of  life  and  Prince  of  Glory.  How  appro- 
priate then  that  declaration,  that  we  have  redemption  through  his 
blood,  even  the  forgiveness  of  sins  according  to  the  riches  of  his  grace. 
Such  then  were  some  of  the  striking  phases  under  which  the  apostle 
would  contemplate  the  crucifixion  of  Christ,  and  the  truths  he  would 
announce  in  connection  with  it.     No  marvel  that  he  should  resolve  to 


GREAT  THEME   OF  THE   CHRISTIAN   MINISTRY.  117 

know  nothing  among  men,  but  the  gi'eat,  profound  and  comprehensive 
subject  of  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified. 
We  inquire,  then, 

II.  If  this  avowal  is  capable  of  vindication. 

This  avowal  we  conceive  to  have  formed  the  very  glory  of  Paul's 
apostleship.  No  higher  resolve  could  he  have  adopted.  No  hoher  or 
nobler  averment  could  he  have  declared.  Various  are  the  weighty  rea- 
sons on  which  a  successful  vindication  of  the  apostle  might  be  ground- 
ed. We  must  be  content  to  notice  two  or  three.  The  apostle's 
avowal  was  worthy  of  himself  and  the  gospel  he  preached,  — 

1.  Because  in  ifie  facts  and  doctrines  of  Chnst's  crucifixioyi  was 
presented  a  true  system  of  religion  in  opposition  to  the  multifarious 
schemes  of  earthly  philosopjhy.  Long  before  the  apostle  preached  the 
gospel,  philosophers  of  various  countries  had  published  the  principles 
of  their  diversified  systems  of  ethics  and  religion.  Hence  men  had 
not  wanted  for  instruction,  such  as  it  was,  on  the  subject  of  the  soul 
acid  its  innate  longings  for  happiness.  But  ancient  philosophy  was 
only  like  the  feeble, flickering  light  of  the  expiring  lamp,  and  there  was 
no  clearness  in  its  revelations  nor  certainty  in  its  enunciation.  One 
system  was  in  direct  opposition  to  another,  and  their  lying  oracles 
never  uttered,  but  in  dark  and  uncertain  sound.  The  great  teachers 
of  these  systems  were  not  agreed  on  one  point  of  any  importance  in 
relation  to  the  lofty  aspiration  and  high  hopes  of  immortal  beings. 
They  were  not  agreed  even  as  to  the  divine  existence.  "  For  the 
world  by  wisdom  knew  not  God."  Some  of  them  taught  that  there 
were  two  gods,  one  the  patron  of  evil  and  the  other  of  good.  One 
to  be  the  object  of  dread,  the  other  of  confidence  and  love.  Most  of 
these  teachers  rather  believed  in  a  multitude  of  gods,  and  were'  given 
up  to  the  gross  superstitions  by  which  they  were  surrounded.  They 
were  not  agreed  as  to  the  real  nature  of  moral  evil.  The  vices  of  some 
were  the  virtues  of  others.  They  could  not  agree  as  to  the  true  char- 
acter of  the  chief  good.  Some  taught  that  it  consisted  in  pleasure, 
one  party  applying  the  term  to  sensual,  the  other  to  mental  gratifica- 
tion. Others,  that  it  consisted  in  obtaining  to  perfect  stoicism  and 
indifference  to  all  pleasure  and  pain.  They  had  only  feeble  and  un- 
certain guesses  as  to  the  future.  They  had  their  misgivings  as  well  as 
their  hopes,  in  reference  to  the  soul's  immortality.  And  of  the  res- 
urrection of  the  body  they  had  not  the  smallest  possible  conception. 
How  true  of  them,  destitute  of  the  light  of  divine  truth,  "  that  they 
wandered  in  endless  mazes  lost."     They  were  hke  the  perplexed  and 


118  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

alarmed  mariner  -without  compass  or  chart,  in  the  midst  of  the  dark  and 
blighting  mist.  But  Paul  rejoiced  that  in  connexion  "with  the  cross  was 
a  true,  clear  and  blessed  system  of  religion  adapted  to  all  the  hopes  and 
desires  of  the  immortal  mind.  Hence,  in  preaching  Christ,  he  called 
the  attention  of  men  to  the  Sun  of  righteousness  which  had  arisen  on 
the  world,  bringing  celestial  light  and  joy  to  a  bewildered  race.  Here 
was  the  true  and  gi-eat  teacher,  who  had  solved  all  difficult  problems, 
and  answered  all  the  important  inquiries  of  the  human  mind.  Here 
was  a  new  system  of  ethics  and  worship,  full  of  holy  lustre  and  moral 
beauty.  Here  vice  was  truly  depicted,  and  virtue  distinctly  revealed. 
Here  the  true  God  was  made  known  in  all  the  grandeur  of  his  perfec- 
tions. Here  the  chief  good  was  positively  exhibited.  The  w^ay  of  hap- 
piness written  as  with  a  sun-beam,  and  hfe  and  immortality  brought  to 
light  by  the  gospel.  Here  the  eternal  world  was  unveiled,  and  the 
glories  of  heaven  and  th,e  horrors  of  hell  presented  for  the  contempla- 
tion of  men.  In  one  word,  here  was  a  system  of  pure  and  certain  and 
harmonious  truth,  worthy  of  the  acceptance  of  intellectual  and  undying 
beings,  and  of  this  system  the  cross  of  Christ  was  the  immovable  basis, 
and  the  grand  centre.  But  the  apostle's  avowal  may  be  vindicated 
on  the  ground, 

2.  That  in  Christ  and  Mm  crucified  was  contained  the  lody  and  re- 
ality  of  the  Jewish  ceremonial.  Judaism,  in  contradistinction  to  pagan 
philosophy,  was  a  divine  institution,  which  originated  with  God,  and 
reflected  his  truth  and  glory.  But  it  was  evident  that  it  was  only  lo- 
cal in  its  character  and  of  transitory  duration.  It  was  but  the  figure 
cr  type  of  a  better  and  more  enduring  dispensation.  All  its  services 
and  sacrifices  and  rites  were  shadows  of  good  things  to  come.  It  only 
required  candor  in  the  Jew  to  discern  that  Christ  was  the  end 
of  the  whole  ceremonial  institution,  the  body  of  all  their  shadows, 
the  object  distinctly  recognized  in  all  their  types.  He  was  the  true 
paschal  lamb.  The  real  sacrifice  for  sins.  The  one  great  offering 
for  the  people.  The  teacher  and  prophet  like  unto  Moses,  unto  whom 
the  people  should  hearken.  That  the  tabernacle  with  its  altar,  the  ho- 
liest of  all  with  its  furniture,  the  priesthood  with  its  services,  all  point- 
ed to  Christ,  and  all  terminated  their  labors  in  him.  Here,  then,  the 
apostle  preached  the  very  system  of  saving  religion,  wliich  God  had 
been  pre-figuring  from  the  time  of  Moses,  the  goodly  land  of  which 
Canaan  itself  but  feebly  typified.  And  hence  the  apostle  resolved  to 
present  this  system  to  the  inquiring,  anxious  Jew  ;  in  all  its  divinity 
and  adaptation  to  his  moral  necessities.  Hence  exclaims  the  apostle, 
"  But  we  preach  Christ  crucified,  unto  the  Jews  a  stumbling-block,  and 
unto  the  Greeks  fooUshness,  but  unto  them  which  believe,  Christ  the 


GREAT   THEME   OF  THE   CHRISTIAN  MINISTRY.  119 

power  of  God,  and  Christ  the  TV'isdom  of  God."     1  Cor.  i.  23,  24. 
But  we  vindicate  the  apostle's  avowal, 

3.  As  Christ  crucified  was  to  he  the  great  moral  attraction  of  our 
perishing  species.  Jesus  himself  had  declared,  "  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted 
up,  will  draw  all  men  unto  me."  These  words  of  the  blessed  Savior 
had  especial  reference  to  the  manner  of  his  death.  Hence  Paul  knew 
experimentally  the  influence  of  the  cross  in  subduing  the  enmity  of  the 
heart,  and  bringing  the  conscience  into  reconcihation  with  God.  Paul 
knew  the  power  of  the  cross  in  destroying  the  dominion  of  sin,  and  in 
bringing  all  the  deep  emotions  of  the  soul  into  a  state  of  holy  and  obe- 
dient love.  Besides,  the  apostle  realized  in  Christ  crucified  all  that 
man,  in  his  fallen  and  miserable  condition,  could  possibly  need.  Did 
man  under  a  sense  of  heavy  guilt  sigh  for  pardon,  he  declared  that 
"  through  this  man  is  preached  forgiveness  of  sins,  and  by  him  all 
that  believe  are  justified  from  all  things,  from  which  they  could  not 
be  justified  by  the  law  of  Moses."  Acts  xiii.  38,  39.  Did  man  feel 
the  misery  of  his  polluted  state  and  desire  holiness,  he  could  announce 
that  a  fountain  had  been  opened  for  sin  and  uncleanness,  and  that  the 
blood  of  Christ,  God's  Son,  cleansed  from  all  sin.  "Was  man  tortured 
with  the  anguish  of  a  distracted  conscience,  the  apostle  would  appeal  to 
the  same  cross,  and  by  it  preach  peace  to  them  that  were  near,  and 
to  them  that  were  afar  off.  Were  men  in  circumstances  of  dread  when 
contemplating  death  and  the  grave  and  eternity,  he  would  show  that 
the  light  of  the  cross  irradiated  the  sombre  tomb,  and  opened  a  bril- 
liant pathway  to  eternal  glory.  Hence,  also,  he  connected  the  cross 
of  Christ  with  the  gift  of  etei*nal  life  to  all  believers.  "What  good  rea- 
son had  he  then  to  resolve  not  to  know  anything  among  men,  save  Jesus 
Christ  and  him  crucified  ?  But  the  apostle  not  only  knew  the  influence 
of  the  death  of  Christ  personally,  but  he  also  knew  that  by  its  inher- 
ent energy  it  was  to  subvert  and  overthrow  the  empire  of  sin,  and 
build  up  to  entire  completion  the  kingdom  of  grace  among  men. 
Hence  with  holy  triumph  he  exclaimed,  "  Now  thanks  be  unto  God, 
which  always  causeth  us  to  triimiph  in  Christ,  and  maketh  manifest  the 
savor  of  his  knowledge  by  us  in  every  place."  2  Cor.  ii.  14.  Paul 
had  confidence  that  the  power  of  the  cross  would  overthrow  Paganism, 
with  all  its  multifarious,  cruel  and  horrid  rites,  and  Judaism,  not-, 
withstanding  the  existing  prejudices  against  Christ  and  his  holy  gos- 
pel. Then  he  knew  well  that  the  cross  and  the  universal  dominion  of 
Christ  over  all  flesh  were  essentially  connected,  and  that  by  the  vir- 
tues of  Calvary  Jesus  should  reign  from  the  rising  to  the  setting  of  the 
sxva.  Hence  this  view  of  Christ's  mediatorial  work  and  glory  had  been 
asserted  by  the  prophet  Isaiah,  who  in  connection  with  predictions  of 


120  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

the  Messiah's  sufferings  and  death,  had  also  prophesied  as  the  final 
result,  that  "  he  should  see  his  seed,  prolong  his  days,  and  that  the 
pleasure  of  the  Lord  should  prosper  in  his  hand.     That  he  should  see 
the  travail  of  his  soul  and  be  satisfied."     Isa.  liii.  10, 11.     And  with 
these  sentiments  harmonized  the  declaration  of  the  apostle  in  his  letter 
to  the  Philippians,  —  "  Who  being  in  the  form  of  God  thought  it  not 
robbery  to  be  equal  with  God,  but  made  himself  of  no  reputation,  and 
took  upon  him  the  form  of  a  servant,  and  was  made  in  the  likeness  of 
men  :  and  being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  he  humbled  himself  and 
became  obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the  cross.     Wherefore 
God  also  hath  highly  exalted  him,  and  given  him  a  name  which  is 
above  every  name  ;  that  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should  bow, 
of  things  in  heaven,  and  things  in  earth,  and  things  under  the  earth  ; 
and  that  every  tongue  should  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to  the 
glory  of  God  the  Father."     Here,  then,  we  learn  on  what  the  hope  of 
our  world's  renovation  rests,  and  the  means  for  its  accomplishment. 
All,  all  is  to  be  effected  by  the  power  of  that  gospel  whose  glorious 
principles  are  concentrated  in  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified.     We 
have  yet  to  contend  with  the  superstitions  and  cruel  and  polluted  rites 
of  heathenism,  but  we  trust  in  the  doctrine  of  Christ  crucified  for  the 
overthrow  of  every  pagan  temple,  and  the  utter  extirpation  of  idolatry 
from  the  world.     We  rely  on  this  for  the  annihilation  of  the  Mahome- 
dan  imposture,  the  religion  of  the  beast,  and  know  that  the  crescent 
must  fall  and  pass  away  before  the  glory  and  power  of  the  cross.  And 
this  doctrine,  too,  must  uproot  the  superstitions  of  Romanism,  and  the 
mere  crucifix  and  Mary  ism  shall  perish  before  the  mighty  influence  of 
the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.     And  scepticism  and  profligacy  and  world- 
liness,  with  every  form  of  moral  evil,  shall  be  exiled  from  our  world  by 
the  effulgent  glory  and  celestial  majesty  of  the  gospel  of  Christ.   We 
despise  not  the  progress  of  science  and  philosophy  ;  we  do  not  under- 
rate the  value  of  learning,  and  the  spread  of  literature  ;  we  cannot  be 
indifferent  to  the  various  important  benevolent  institutions  of  our  times, 
but  on  none  of  them  can  we  rest  for  the  world's  deliverance  from  error 
and  guilt.     Our  only  hope  clings  to  the  faithful  and  extended  promul- 
gation of  the  doctrine  of  Christ  and  him  crucified.     0  yes,  the  light 
and  saving  influence  of  Calvary  are  powerfully  working  for  the  restora- 
tion of  our  world  from  debasement,  sin  and  death,  to  a  state  of  univer- 
sal dignity,  holiness  and  bliss. 

And  now  what  are  the  important  lessons  we  derive  from  this  subject  ? 
We  see, 

1.   What  is  the  very  essence  and  glory  of  the  gospel.     It  is  the  great 
fact  of  Christ's  death  as  an  atoninor  sacrifice  for  the  sin  of  the  world. 


GREAT   THEME   OF   THE   CHRISTIAN  MINISTRT.  121 

It  is  true  tliat  he  both  Uved  and  died  as  an  illustrious  example  of  holy 
obedience  and  resignation  to  the  will  of  God.  That  he  died  to  confirm 
with  his  dying  breath  and  his  flowing  blood  the  great  truths  which  he  had 
taught,  and  the  celestial  principles  of  his  kingdom.  But  it  is  an  essen- 
tial truth,  that  he  died  to  redeem  us  to  God.  That  he  suffered  the  just, 
for  us  the  unjust,  to  bring  us  to  the  enjoyment  of  the  Divine  favor  and 
everlasting  life.  That  he  bore  in  his  own  body  our  sins  upon  the  tree. 
And  that  now  God  may,  in  the  exercise  of  the  most  rigid  equity,  be 
manifested  both  as  the  just  God  and  yet  the  Savior.  And  now  in 
Christ's  name  may  be  preached  to  every  fallen  child  of  man,  repentance 
and  remission  of  sins.  Men  may  now  return  to  God,  because  he  hath 
redeemed  them,  and  redeemed  them  not  with  corruptible  things,  such 
as  silver  and  gold,  but  with  the  "  precious  blood  of  Christ,  as  of  a  lamb 
without  blemish  and  without  spot,  who  verily  was  foreordained  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world,  but  was  manifest  in  these  last  times  for  you." 
1  Peter  i.  18, 19.  The  exclusion  of  this  great  subject,  or  giving  it 
an  inferior  place  in  the  gospel  system,  is  virtually  the  withholding  or 
enshrouding  the  brightest  and  sweetest  rays  of  gospel  glory.  We 
learn, 

2.  WJiat  slioidd  still  he  the  chief  topic  of  pulpit  ministration.  It 
is  "  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified."  This  should  be  the  constant  and 
not  the  merely  occasional  theme.  This  should  be  the  precious  golden 
thread  running  through  the  whole  web  of  our  discourses.'  It  is  vitally 
connected  with  every  doctrine,  with  every  blessing,  with  every  privi- 
lege, with  every  duty  of  Christianity.  It  is  the  very  heart  and  spirit 
of  evangelical  preaching.  For  this  there  is  no  substitute.  When  this 
is  wanting,  the  cardinal  principle  is  wanting.  No  embellishments  of 
rhetoric,  no  style  of  composition,  no  beauty  of  thought,  no  grandeur  of 
idea,  no  energy  of  expression,  can  make  up  for  this.  All  without  this 
is  the  chiseled  form,  and  it  must  be  cold  and  without  life.  It  is  the 
painted  representation,  but  it  is  nothing  after  all  but  canvass  and  col- 
oring applied  Avith  the  touch  of  a  human  hand,  the  glory  and  the  divin- 
ity are  wanting.  Sermons  without  this  maybe  chaste  or  elegant,  they 
may  be  startling  or  eloquent,  but  evangelical  and  Christian  they  are 
not.  No,  the  resolve  of  the  man  who  feels  the  power  of  the  truth  on 
his  own  heart,  and  who  longs  to  bring  the  same  power  to  bear  on  the 
hearts  of  others,  must  be  that  of  the  apostle,  "  For  I  am  determined 
not  to  know  any  thing  among  you,  save  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified." 
We  learn  from  this, 

3.  The  probable  main  cause  of  the  apparent  extensive  failure  as  to 
tJie  success  of  preaching.  It  is  possible  for  men  to  retain  an  honorable 
character  for  being  evangelical,  while  Christ  and  his  cross  are  subordi- 


122  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

nate  themes  in  their  ministry.  And  if  the  gospel  only  is  the  power  of 
God  unto  salvation,  and  Christ  crucified  is  the  very  power  of  that  gos- 
pel, how  can  such  preaching  be  effective  when  that  theme  is  not  al- 
ways in  the  ascendant.  Let  it  not  be  imagined  that  it  is  essential  to 
this  that  certain  phrases  must  always  be  in  use  or  a  certain  monoto- 
nous mode  observed  in  the  discussion  of  pulpit  discourses,  but  rather  that 
the  spirit  of  the  cross  should  imbue  the  minister's  heart  on  every  oc- 
casion. This  theme  alone  can  bring  the  love  of  God,  in  all  its  omnipo- 
tent influence,  to  bear  on  the  human  heart,  and  we  know  of  nothing 
else  that  can  soften  and  renew  it.  How  careful  we  should  be,  that  as 
preachers  we  are  not  diverted  from  the  doctrine  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
him  crucified.  Oh,  let  us  preach  him  always,  and  with  all  our  hearts, 
and  then  we  may  confidently  expect  that  God  will  crown  our  labors 
with  eminent  success.  Blessed  be  God,  the  cross  has  lost  none  of  its 
saving  virtue.  It  is  still  the  grand  catholicon  for  all  the  ills  and  woes 
which  aifect  our  common  humanity.     "We  inquire, 

4.  What  personal  interest  and  acquaintance  have  you  ivith  this  great 
subject  ?  You  may  hear  of  Christ  crucified  and  not  spiritually  under- 
stand it.  Or  you  may  understand  it  in  its  doctrinal  bearing,  and  yet 
be  strangers  to  its  saving  power.  You  may  often  hear  of  the  cross, 
and  yet  live  at  a  great  moral  distance  from  it.  You  may  even  love  to 
listen  to  evangelical  truth,  and  yet  be  the  slaves  of  error  and  unbelief. 
Even  a  profession  of  attachment  to  the  cross  may  be  made,  and  yet  in 
works  you  may  deny  him.  Brethren,  how  is  it  with  you  ?  Have  you 
so  contemplated  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified  that  you  can  confident- 
ly say,  "  He  loved  me  and  hath  given  himself  for  me  ?"  Has  Christ 
been  formed  in  your  hearts  the  hope  of  glory  ?  By  the  cross  have 
you  obtained  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  Here  have  you  found 
rest  to  your  wearied  soul,  and  a  good  hope  through  grace  ?  Do  you 
revere  the  cross,  glory  in  it,  and  by  it  has  the  world  been  crucified  to 
you  and  you  to  the  world  ?  Are  the  sacred  interests  of  the  cross  yours, 
and  so  yours,  that  you  live  constantly  under  their  constraining  influ- 
ence ?  Are  you  hving  to  advance  its  peaceful  and  joyous  triumphs  ? 
Does  it  cheer  you  in  sorrow,  strengthen  you  in  trouble,  is  it  your  hope 
in  death,  will  yoa  trust  only  and  entirely  to  it  when  you  shall  plunge 
into  the  swellings  of  Jordan  ?  Will  your  hope  and  love  to  the  cross 
bear  you  up,  when  the  world  is  on  fire  —  and  when  the  Savior  comes 
in  the  clouds  of  heaven  with  power  and  great  glory  ?  Brethren,  an 
experimental  knowledge  of  Christ  and  him  crucified  is  our  only  blessed- 
ness in  this  world,  and  can  be  our  only  song  and  joy  forever. 

And  now,  in  conclusion,  let  it  be  our  first  concern  to  know  really  and 
savingly  for  ourselves,  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified,  and  then  let  it 


CmilST   CRUCIFIED.  123 

be  the  great  end  of  our  lives  to  promote  to  the  utmost  of  our  ability  the 
knowledge  of  that  blessed  subject  among  others.  For  this  is  life  eter- 
nal, to  know  the  true  God  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  he  hath  sent.    Amen. 


SERMON  X. 

THE    CRUCIFIXION    OF    CHRIST. 

BY   J.    E.    BEAUMONT,   M.  D. 

"  Ye  men  of  Israel,  hoar  theso  words  ;  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  a  man  approved  of  God  among  you  by  rair- 
Bcles,  and  womlers,  and  signs,  which  God  did  by  him  in  the  midst  of  you,  as  ye  yourselves  also  know  :  Him 
being  delivered  by  the  determinate  counsel  and  foreknowledge  of  God,  ye  have  taken,  and  by  wicked 
hands  have  crucified  and  slain." — Acts  ii.  22,  23. 

If  there  be  joy  in  the  presence  of  the  angels  of  God  over  one  sin- 
ner that  repenteth,  what  must  be  the  joy  of  that  minister  who  on  good 
grounds  has  reason  to  conclude,  that  by  the  instrumentality  of  his  min- 
istrations the  kingdom  of  heaven  has  been  opened  to  a  multitude  of 
perishing  sinners  ?  That  joy  of  all  joys  is  the  highest,  the  deepest, 
the  richest,  and  the  strongest.  Such  was  Peter's  joy  upon  the  day  of 
Pentecost. 

He  who  enters  on  the  work  of  the  ministry,  enters  into  tribulation. 
"When  Peter  was  appointed  to  the  ministry,  to  the  apostleship,  he  was 
appointed  to  martyrdom.  He  that  said  to  Peter,  "  Feed  my  sheep, 
feed  my  lambs,"  said  also  unto  him,  "  When  thou  wast  young,  thou 
girdcst  thyself,  and  walkedst  whither  thou  wouldest ;  but  when  thou 
shalt  be  old,  thoa  shalt  stretch  forth  thy  hands,  and  another  shall  gird 
thee,  and  carry  thee  whither  thou  wouldest  not."  Peter's  ministra- 
tion Avas  a  scene  of  glory,  but  it  was  a  scene  of  tribulation ;  it  was 
contested  all  along  its  course  with  the  fiercest  and  the  most  virulent 
opposition ;  but  God  gave  him  to  taste  at  its  outset  the  sweetest  joy 
that  a  minister  can  taste,  and  so  prepared  him  for  the  bitternesses  that 
were  to  come. 

The  first  sermon,  the  very  first  sermon,  that  Peter  preached,  was 
with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  power.  My  text  is  a  part  of  it.  You 
know  the  simphcity  of  his  manner,  the  order  and  power  of  his  argu- 
ment, the  force  and  majesty  of  his  eloquence,  —  and  oh,  how  success- 
ful was  that  first  sermon !  Peter  brought  home  to  his  hearers  the 
guilt  which  they  had  contracted ;  he  set  before  them  Jesus  Christ  cru- 


124  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

cified  hy  them  —  ah  !  anci/c»-  them  as  well  as  by  them  ;  and  that  ser- 
mon at  once  captiv^ated  three  thousand  hearts  —  three  thousand  were 
pricked  to  the  heart,  believed,  and  were  added  unto  the  Lord.  Our 
God  is  in  the  heavens,  and  still  our  Jesus  reigns.  We  that  preach  in 
tliis  day,  are  sometimes  tempted  to  inquire,  "  Who  hath  believed  our 
report  ?  and  to  whom  is  the  arm  of  ^he  Lord  revealed  ?  "  but  our  God 
is  in  the  heavens,  and  still  our  Jesus  reigns,  and  "  with  him  is  the  res- 
idue of  the  Spirit."  May  he  pour  it  out  on  this  congregation !  May 
the  arm  of  the  Lord  our  God  be  made  bare  amongst  us  to-night !  I 
bring  you  no  new  gospel ;  I  rejoice  that  I  preach  to  those,  mainly  so 
at  least,  this  evening,  who  have  been  accustomed  to  the  burden  of  my 
ministry,  and  who  know  that  I  have  nothing  else  to  preach  but  Jesus 
Christ,  and  him  crucified.  "  Hear  these  words,  then,  ye  men  of  Isra- 
el," and  be  thankful  that  ye  have  to  hear  them,  not  in  hell,  but  on 
earth  where  the  gospel  is  preached.  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  a  man  ap- 
proved of  God  among  you  by  miracles,  and  wonders,  and  signs,"  said 
Peter  unto  the  people  to  whom  he  preached,  "  which  God  did  by  him 
in  the  midst  of  you,  as  ye  yourselves  also  know :  him  being  delivered 
by  the  determinate  counsel  and  foreknowledge  of  God,  ye  have  taken, 
and  by  wicked  hands  have  crucified  and  slain." 

Now,  there  are  four  inquiries  to  which  I  shall  endeavor  to  direct 
your  attention  from  these  words.  First,  Who  was  delivered  ?  "  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  a  man  approved  of  God."  Secondly,  To  what  was  he 
delivered  ?  Crucifixion ;  "  Ye  crucified  him."  Thirdly,  By  whom 
was  he  thus  delivered  ?  "By  the  determinate  counsel  and  foreknowl- 
edge of  God,  and  by  your  wicked  hands  and  hearts."  Fourthly  and 
lastly,  The  design  on  account  of,  and  the  end  for  which,  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  was  delivered :  "  for  us  men, and  for  our  salvation."  May 
God  the  Holy  Spirit  assist  me  to  preach,  and  you  to  hear ! 

I.  Who  was  delivered  ?    Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

Jesus  of  Nazareth  had  at  once  a  name  of  ignominy  and  a  name  of 
renown  ;  a  name  of  scandal  and  a  name  of  glory.  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
or  as  it  is  in  the  original,  Jesus  the  Nazarene  —  called  a  Nazarene  in 
Scripture  because  he  was  devoted  unto  God  —  called  a  Nazarene  by 
the  Jews  because  he  was  brought  up  at  Nazareth  ;  and  they  availed 
themselves  of  that  fact  in  his  earliest  history,  to  fasten  upon  him  what 
they  thought  would  be  an  indelible  stigma.  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth." 
Jesus  is  a  name  of  gloi-y.  It  was,  indeed,  a  human  name,  a  common 
name  :  it  was  borne  by  many,  as  we  read  in  history,  before  it  was  ap- 
•'plied  to  him  who  was  born  of  a  virgin  ;  but  when  it  was  once  put  on 
him  who  was  born  of  the  virgin  in  Bethlehem,  it  never  was  put  on 


CHRIST   CRUCIFIED.  '    125 

any  other.  You  do  not  hesitate  to  call  your  children  by  the  names  of 
the  apostles,  always  excepting  the  name  of  Judas  —  for  -what  father 
could  bear  to  have  a  son  called  by  the  name  of  Judas  ?  The  name 
that  had  been  an  honorable  name,  was  by  the  fact  of  the  conduct  of 
him  that  betrayed  the  Son  of  man  Avith  a  kiss,  blighted,  blasted,  and 
withered  away.  But  the  name  of  Jesus,  which  had  been  a  human 
name,  a  common  name,  before  it  was  put  upon  him  born  of  a  virgin, 
when  once  it  was  put  upon  him  became  a  divine  name,  a  superhuman 
name,  and  no  father  dares  to  call  his  sou  Jesus,  because  God  has 
called  his  Son  Jesus. 

"  This  is  the  name  to  sinners  dear, 
This  is  the  name  to  sinners  given." 

This  is  a  name  above  every  name,  Jesus  of  Nazareth ;  he  saves  us  by 
the  power  of  his  cross,  by  the  glory  of  his  throne. 

We  observe,  that  the  particular  feature  of  his  character  here  de- 
veloped in  the  text,  is,  the  power  of  working  miracles.  "  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  a  man  approved  of  God  among  you  by  miracles,  and  won- 
ders, and  signs.'^  Now  these  three  words,  "  miracles,  wondera,  and 
signs,"  are  synonymous,  the  import  of  them  is  the  same,  substantially 
the  same.  He  wrought  mhacles.  What  is  a  miracle?  A  miracle 
has  been  defined —  "  a  suspension  of  the  power  of  the  laws  of  nature; 
a  suspension  or  counteraction  of  the  laws  of  nature."  And  what  are 
the  laws  of  nature  ?  The  laws  of  nature  are  the  association  and  agen- 
cies of  God,  by  which  he  employs  certain  causes  to  the  production  of 
certain  effects,  and  not  others  —  a  certain  association  between  definite 
causes  and  definite  effects  —  what  our  philosophers  call  "  the  laws  of 
nature  ;  "  what  the  Bible  calls  "  the  ordinances  of  heaven."  What 
philosophers  signify  by  the  terms,  the  essential,  the  inflexible,  eternal 
laws  of  nature,  is  nothing  at  all  but  the  will  of  God  acting  in  a  defi- 
nite way ;  and  these  laws  of  nature,  these  ordinances  of  heaven,  this 
fixed  association  between  cause  and  effect — Jesus  of  Nazareth  broke 
in  upon  them,  disturbed  them  when  he  pleased,  set  them  aside  as  often 
as  he  listed.  He  showed  that  he  was  the  Author  of  nature,  and  that 
all  these  laws  which  philosophers  call  the  laws  of  nature,  were  of  his 
own  making,  his  own  ordination ;  and,  therefore,  as  he  produced  the 
effects  without  their  appropriate  causes,  as  he  produced  results  apart 
from  the  usual  associated  causes,  therefore  he  was  the  God  of  nature ; 
and,  by  his  power  of  working  miracles,  proved  that  he  was  God  over 
all.  His  miracles  are  called  wonders,  because  they  filled  the  specta- 
tors with  wonder  ;  and  they  are  called  signs,  because  they  were  in- 
dexes of  the  properties,  and  prerogatives,  and  character  of  him  that 
wrought  them. 


126  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

"  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  a  man  approved  of  God  among  you  by  mirar 
cles,  and  wonders,  and  signs,  which  God  did  by  him  in  the  midst  of 
you,  as  ye  yourselves  also  Jcnow.^^  Yes,  he  might  very  well  say  that 
he  was  preaching  to  a  people  who  had  seen  Jesus  raise  the  dead  — 
who  had  seen  him  walk  upon  the  lake  of  Gennesareth  —  who  had  seen 
him  multiply  a  handful  of  bread,  so  that  thousands  were  fed  —  they 
had  seen  him  give  sight  to  a  man  born  blind.  How  did  he  effect  it  ? 
"Why,  he  spat  upon  the  ground,  made  clay  with  the  spittle,  and  an- 
ointed the  eyes  of  the  man  born  blind  !  Was  that  hkely  to  make  a 
blmd  man  see  ?  Was  that  the  way  to  open  the  eyes  of  a  man  bom 
blind,  to  besmear  the  eye-balls  over  in  that  way  ?  Why  did  our  Sa- 
vior do  it  in  that  manner  ?  It  was  done  to  teach  those  who  witnessed 
the  miracle,  that  the  thing  itself  did  not  follow  from  the  physical  means 
employed ;  for  there  was  no  connection  whatever  between  besmearing 
the  blind  man's  eyes  over  in  that  way  and  his  reception  of  sight.  It 
was  to  show  that  the  thing  wrought  was  solely  the  effect  of  him  that 
wrought  it,  and  not  in  any  wise  connected  with  the  physicial  means 
employed  at  the  time  of  the  production.  The  miracle  excited  their 
attention,  as  well  it  might.  It  was  examined  ;  it  was  tested ;  the 
scribes,  and  pharisees,  and  priests,  tossed  it  from  crucible  to  crucible ; 
they  endeavored  to  find  some  flaw  in  it ;  but  after  all  their  long  at- 
tempts to  detect  some  fallacy,  in  effect  they  said,  "  We  will  give  it 
up ;  we  cannot  deny  it ;  it  is  unquestionable  that  a  notable  miracle 
has  been  wrought  by  the  man." 

His  power  of  working  miracles  was  farther  displayed  in  the  resur- 
rection of  the  dead  —  as  we  have  already  noticed.  He  raised  the 
son  of  the  wdow  at  Nain,  he  raised  the  daughter  of  Jairus,  he  raised 
Lazarus.  Had  he  only  raised  up  the  daughter  of  Jairus,  our  infidels 
would  have  said,  it  was  not  a  resurrection^  it  was  merely  a  case  of 
suspended  animation.  Well,  but,  besides  that,  he  raised  the  son  of 
the  widow  of  Nain,  who  had  been  dead  some  days.  And  that  is  not 
all :  he  raised  Lazarus,  who  was  dead  and  buried,  and  not  only  dead 
and  buried,  but  the  process  of  putrefaction  had  commenced  on  the  sol- 
ids and  fluids  of  the  body.  In  that  hot  country  putrefaction  took 
place  in  three  days ;  and,  as  I  stated  when  I  preached  to  you  last, 
one  proof  of  the  truth  of  Scripture  is  the  resurrection  of  Christ.  It 
was  prophesied  of  Christ,  that  God  should  not  leave  his  soul  in  hell, 
and  Christ  was  not  more  than  three  days  in  the  grave,  because  if  he 
had  been  he  would  have  seen  corruption.  But  Lazarus  was  more  than 
three  days  in  the  grave  ;  for,  when  he  opened  up  the  wondrous  scene 
about  to  be  exhibited,  the  sister  of  Lazarus  said,  "  Lord,  by  this  time 
he  stinketh,  for  he  hath  been  dead  four  days."     But  what  was  that  to 


CHRIST   CRUCIFIED.  127 

tHe  Son  of  God  ?  He  came  to  the  mouth  of  the  grave  and  said : 
"  Lazarus,  come  forth  ;  "  and  Lazarus  started  into  hfe.  It  was  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  that  spake  the  word,  and  he  was  mighty  in  signs  and  in 
deeds. 

Sec  his  power  in  feeding  the  hungry  out  of  a  single  handful  of 
bread,  which  he  multiphed ;  see  him  walking  on  the  waters  as  if  a 
pavement  of  adamant  were  under  his  feet ;  these  are  some  of  the  mir- 
acles, and  signs,  and  wonders,  done  by  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  in  the  midst 
of  the  people ;  and  these  attested  his  own  character  as  the  Messiah. 
The  prophecies  that  went  before  him  intimated  that  he  should  perform 
miracles ;  and,  performing  such  miracles,  they  also  attested  his  own 
character,  his  infinite  beneficence  and  benevolence.  I  pass  on  to 
notice, 

11.   To   WHAT  THIS  JeSTJS    OF    NaZARETH,  A    MAN    APPROVED   OF 

God,  by  these  miracles,  and  signs,  and  wonders,  was  deliv- 
ered ;  for  the  apostle  says,  "  Him  being  delivered." 

Here  we  may  ask,  why  is  it  that  Peter,  who  is  in  general  so  bold 
and  perspicuous,  does  not  mention  to  what  circumstances,  or  to  what 
condition,  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  delivered  ?  But  we  shall  find  an 
answer  to  this  by  a  reference  to  the  idiom  of  Peter's  mother  tongue. 
Peter  was  a  Jew,  and  spoke  the  Hebrew  language  ;  and,  according  to 
the  idiom  of  that  language,  the  words  rendered  to  be  delivered,  mean 
to  be  delivered  to  death,  to  be  delivered  up  for  God,  to  be  delivered 
to  martyrdom.  It  was  a  common  proverb  among  the  Jews,  that  such 
an  one  was  delivered  —  that  is,  delivered  to  death,  delivered  to  mar- 
tyrdom for  the  truth.  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  delivered  to  death,  to  a 
death  the  most  extraordinary  in  its  nature,  and  the  most  dolorous  in 
its  circumstances,  if  you  consider  the  place  where  he  died,  the  persons 
amongst  whom  he  died,  or  the  death  itself  which  he  endured. 

Consider  the  place  where  he  died.  We  all  hope  to  die  in  our  own 
homes,  in  our  own  beds  ;  the  people  of  God  generally  are  allowed  to 
die  thus.  But  where  did  your  Lord  and  Master  die  ?  One  of  the 
historians  says,  with  inimitable  and  overwhelming  emphasis,  "They 
led  him  away  to  Calvary,  and  there  they  crucified  him."  A  place  pu- 
trid with  blood  and  bones  —  a  place,  the  atmosphere  of  which  was 
impregnated  with  a  blasphemous  breath.  Consider,  too,  among  ivhom 
Tie  died.  He  was  crucified  between  two  thieves,  two  malefactors ;  he 
had  the  middle  place  assigned  him,  as  though  he  was  worse  than  either 
of  them.  And,  as  to  the  death  itself  ivhich  he  endured,  you  know 
what  it  was.  Crucifixion  was  the  most  lingering  and  painful  mode  of 
death,  and  it  was  the  most  infamous  one  ;  and  m  the  estimation  of  the 


128  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

Jews,  it  was  an  accursed  death,  for,  according  to  their  own  law,  "  Cur- 
sed is  he  that  hangeth  on  a  tree."  There  see  the  head  that  was 
filled  with  treasures  of  knowledge  sinking  lifeless  upon  his  bosom  ;  see 
those  hands  that  mixed  the  ointment  for  the  eyes  of  the  blind,  that 
multiplied  the  loaves  for  the  starving  people,  that  were  stretched  out 
upon  the  sick  and  dying,  to  recover  and  to  serve  them;  see  those 
hands  stretched  on  the  accursed  tree ;  see  those  feet  that  were  be- 
dewed with  the  tears,  and  anointed  with  the  ointment  of  Mary,  and 
that  carried  him  about  on  his  journies  of  piety  and  charity,  pierced 
with  rugged  iron  ;  and  the  heart  that  throbbed  with  love  for  the  human 
race,  and  glowed  with  zeal  for  the  honor  of  his  Father,  pierced  with 
the  cruel  spear.  "  Behold,  all  ye  that  pass  by,  and  see  if  ever  was 
sorrow  like  unto  his  sorrow  in  the  day  that  the  Lord  afflicted  him  in 
the  fierceness  of  his  anger."  What  part  of  his  flesh  was  exempt  from 
sufiering  ?  He  bore  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree.  What  part 
of  his  body  was  exempt  from  anguish  ?  Was  it  his  hands  and  his 
feet  ?  —  they  were  pierced  with  nails.  Was  it  his  temples  ?  —  they 
were  punctured  with  thorns.  Was  it  his  back  ?  —  that  was  lacerated 
with  scourges.  Was  it  his  side  ?  —  that  was  broken  by  "the  hostile 
spear.  Was  it  his  bones  ?  —  they  were  all  as  it  were  out  of  joint. 
Was  it  his  muscles  ?  —  they  were  stretched  upon  the  gibbet.  Was  it 
his  veins  ?  —  they  were  deprived  of  their  purple  fluid.  Was  it  his 
nerves,  those  canals  of  feeling,  those  rivers  of  sensation  ?  —  they 
were  wrung  with  anguish.  He  bore  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the 
tree.  And  all  this,  the  affliction  of  his  body,  was  as  nothing  compared 
with  the  sorrows  of  his  soul.  "  My  soul,"  said  he,  when  he  was  de- 
livered up,  "  is  exceeding  sorrowful."  "  Now  am  I  sorrowful,"  said 
he,  as  if  he  never  knew  what  sorrow  was  before.  Though  he  had  been 
a  man  of  sorrows,  and  a  child  of  grief,  and  began  when  he  was  the 
babe  of  Bethlehem  to  know  the  sorrows,  though  dear  to  him  on  our 
account,  yet,  when  he  came  to  be  delivered  up,  he  said,  "  Now,  now 
is  my  soul  exceeding  sorrowful."  The  weight  of  mental  anguish  may 
be  alleviated  by  two  sources  ;  it  may  be  alleviated  by  the  afiectionate 
sympathy  of  relatives  and  friends,  or  alleviated  by  the  consolations  of 
God  our  heavenly  Father. 

The  weight  of  mental  anguish,  I  say,  may  be  alleviated  by  the  sym- 
pathies of  affectionate  friends.  When  you  die,  I  dare  say,  your 
friends  will  be  with  you,  and  they  will  shake  the  pillow  under  your 
head,  and  they  will  wipe  away  the  cold,  clammy  sweat  as  it  forms  on 
your  marble  brow,  and  they  will  quote  the  precious  promises,  and  will 
pour  out  the  fervent  prayer,  and  they  will  soothe  your  anguish,  and 
render  you  a  thousand  nameless  offices  of  tenderness  and  affection. 


CHKIST  CRUCIFIED.  129 

But  how  was  it  with  your  Savior  ?  When  he  died,  his  disciples  for- 
sook him  and  fled ;  he  was  surrounded  by  grim  guards  —  by  hostile 
bands. 

'  The  weight  of  our  mental  anguish  is  often  alleviated,  too,  hy  the 
ministry  of  holy  angels.  We  see  not  their  lovely  forms,  we  hear  not 
the  melody  of  their  voices  ;  but  they  are  with  us  in  the  hour  of  our 
deepest  sorrow,  and  they  perform  offices  of  affectionate  kindness  to  us 
in  the  moment  of  our  dissolution.  They  are  ministering  spirits  sent 
forth  to  minister  unto  them  who  are  heirs  of  salvation  ;  and  perhaps 
the  most  important  part  of  their  ministration  is  rendered  to  us  just 
when  life  is  quivering  on  the  lip,  and  the  immortal  spirit  is  on  the  con- 
fines of  eternity.  Our  Savior  had  himself,  during  his  life,  been  min- 
istered to  by  angels  ;  but,  when  delivered  up  to  death,  the  angels  af- 
forded hun  no  sympathy.  0  thou  blessed  seraph  —  thou  that  didst 
fly  to  him  when  in  the  wilderness  of  temptation ;  thou  that  didst  ap- 
pear to  sti'engthen  him  when  in  the  garden  of  Gethsemane  —  where 
wert  thou  when  he  was  upon  the  cross  of  Calvary  ?  He  drank  the 
wine-press  of  his  Father's  fury  alone  ;  with  him  was  none ;  neither 
man  nor  angel  could  sympathize  with  him  in  his  suffering. 

The  weight  of  mental  anguish  may  be  alleviated  by  the  consolations 
of  our  heavenly  Father.  But  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  when  delivered  up 
to  death,  was  without  these  consolations  also.  The  Father  that  had 
honored  his  birth  by  a  new  star  —  the  Father  that  had  honored  his 
baptism  by  the  sound  of  a  more  than  mortal  voice  from  the  excellent 
glory  —  the  Father  that  had  honored  him  when  he  performed  the  mir- 
acles to  which  I  have  alluded — the  Father,  the  God  of  all  consola- 
tion, the  everlasting  Father,  the  God  of  love  —  forsook  him  upon  the 
cross.  "  My  God  (we  hear  no  complaint  from  him  until  this,  and  then 
Christ  said,)  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ?  "  And, 
at  the  sound  of  his  voice,  and  the  bowing  of  his  head,  nature  affright- 
ed threw  herself  into  convulsions,  the  sun  hid  his  face,  the  rocks  rent, 
the  graves  opened,  the  dead  came  forth.  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  de- 
livered up  to  death,  a  death  the  most  extraordinary  in  its  nature,  and 
the  most  dolorous  in  its  circumstances. 

m,  I  inquire,  by  whom  he  was  delivered  up  to  this  death  ? 
And  the  text  leads  our  attention  to  two  classes  of  agents  that  were 
concerned  in  this  act,  the  one  human — the  other  divine;  the  one 
guilty,  the  other  holy  ;  the  one  visible,  the  other  invisible. 

I  notice,  first,  the  humayi  agents.  "  Ye  men  of  Israel,"  said  the  apos- 
tle, "  hear  these  words.     Jesus  of  Nazareth,  a  man  approved  of  God 
among  you,  by  miracles,  and  wonders,  and  signs,  which  God  did  by 
9 


130  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

him  in  the  midst  of  you,  as  ye  yourselves  also  know ;  him  being  deliv- 
ered by  the  determinate  counsel  and  foreknowledge  of  God,  ye  have 
taken,  and  by  -wicked  hands  have  crucified  and  slain."  Yes,  it  was 
the  Jews  that  did  it ;  their  high  priest  had  said  it  was  expedient  for 
Christ  to  die  ;  it  was  their  Pontius  Pilate  that  condemned  him ;  it  was 
their  Judas  that  betrayed  him ;  it  was  their  Herod  that  mocked  him ; 
it  was  their  priests  that  plotted  it ;  it  was  their  scribes  and  pharisees 
that  hailed  it ;  it  was  their  populace  that  shouted  for  it.  But  let  not 
the  Jews  imagine  that  their  guilt  is  at  all  diminished  by  the  fact  of 
the  death  of  Christ  being  "  according  to  the  determinate  counsel  and 
foreknowledge  of  God:"  "him  being  delivered  by  the  determinate 
counsel  and  foreknowledge  of  God."  Their  actions  were  not  at  all 
influenced  by  the  determinate  counsel  of  Jehovah ;  the  apostle  tells 
them  they  were  not :  ^e  says,  "  Ye  have  done  it ;  him  ye  have  taken, 
and  by  wicked  hands  have  crucified  and  slain."  Oh,  ye  detestable, 
ye  infuriated  people  ;  what  could  move  you  to  tear,  and  mar,  and 
taunt,  and  crucify,  and  revile,  and  slay  the  Lord  of  life  and  glory  ? 
He  healed  your  sick,  cleansed  your  lepers,  gave  sight  to  the  blind, 
expelled  demons  from  the  possessed,  he  raised  your  dead  —  for  which 
of  these  things  do  ye  crucify  him  ?  0  Jerusalem,  he  ennobled  you  by 
his  birth,  he  distinguished  you  by  his  miracles,  he  enlightened  you  by 
his  doctrines,  he  cherished  thee  with  such  affectionate  regard  that  his 
eyes  became  fountains  of  tears.  Here  is  an  appeal  by  the  mouth  of 
the  divine  Father,  "  Oh,  my  people,  testify  to  me  what  have  I  done  to 
thee  ?  wherein  have  I  wearied  thee  ?  I  brought  thee  from  the  house 
of  bondage  with  my  great  might ;  I  made  a  way  through  the  Red  Sea, 
dried  it  up  for  the  soles  of  thy  feet ;  I  cast  out  thy  enemies  before 
thee  ;  I  gave  thee  manna  from  the  clouds ;  I  conducted  thee  by  a  pil- 
lar of  fire  and  cloud ;  I  brought  thee  triumphantly  forth  into  the  land 
of  Canaan ;  I  gave  thee  houses  to  live  in  which  thou  buildedst  not,  and 
wells  to  drink  of  which  thou  diggedst  not,  and  fields  which  thou  sowedst 
not ;  I  gave  to  thee  David  and  Solomon  for  kings  ;  I  raised  up  judges 
among  you  ;  I  gave  you  Moses  for  a  prophet,  and  Aaron  for  a  priest, 
and  Miriam  for  a  prophetess  —  these  things  have  I  done.  Why  do 
ye  crucify  me  —  which  of  all  these  things  forms  the  matter  of  my  ac- 
cusation ?  "  Oh,  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem,  thou  that  killest  the  prophets, 
and  stonest  them  which  are  sent  unto  thee,  mayest  thou  not  have  been 
satisfied  with  having  shed  the  blood  of  all  the  righteous  men  that  have 
ever  been  slain,  from  the  death  of  Zacharias  between  the  porch  and 
the  altar,  without  imbruing  thy  murderous  hands  in  the  blood  of  the 
Lord  of  life  and  glory  ?     Oh,  ye  murderous,  infuriated  Jerusalem,  ye 


CHRIST  CRUCIFIED.  131 

have  taken  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  him  by  wicked  hands  have  ye  cru- 
cified and  slain ! 

But  there  is  another  agency  in  this  transaction :  a  G-od  appears  in 
this  amazing  scene.  Lift  up  the  eyes  of  your  mind  to  the  throne  of 
the  heavens,  to  the  Majesty  on  high,  and  see  God  dehvering  up  his 
own  Son  to  this  accursed  death.  "  Him  being  delivered  by  the  de- 
terminate counsel  and  foreknowledge  of  God,  ye  have  taken."  They 
could  have  had  no  power  at  all  against  the  Son  of  man  except  it  had 
been  given  to  them  from  above ;  they  could  not  any  of  them  —  neither 
Herod,  nor  Judas,  nor  Pontius  Pilate,  nor  the  priests  —  none  of  them 
could  have  had  any  power  at  all,  if  it  had  not  been  fnom  God,  if  it 
had  not  been  with  the  concurrence  of  the  Lord,  Jehovah  himself ; 
"  him  being  delivered  by  the  determinate  counsel  and  foreknowledge 
of  God." 

The  death  of  Christ  was  not  casual,  it  was  not  accidental,  it  was 
according  to  the  certain  counsels  entered  into  between  the  Father, 
Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  m  the  abyss  of  a  past  eternity ;  when  as  yet 
there  was  darkness,  when  as  yet  there  were  no  creatures  to  be  redeem- 
ed ;  Avhen  as  yet  time  had  not  begun  to  reign.  In  these  councils  that 
were  held  between  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  it  was  agreed 
that  one  of  the  persons  of  the  Trinity  should  become  incarnate  fur 
lost  human  nature  ;  that  one  should  die  for  our  guilty  world.  Accord- 
ing to  these  counsels,  to  the  contract  formed  and  entered  into,  Jesus 
of  Nazareth  was  delivered  up  unto  death.  See  Jehovah  deliberating 
whether  his  own  Son  or  man  he  should  spare.  To  what  will  you  com- 
pare this,  and  whereunto  will  you  liken  it  ?  I  know  nothing  that  this 
transaction  on  the  part  of  Jehovah  can  be  compared  unto.  I  know 
that  Abraham's  ofiering  up  Isaac  is  appealed  to  as  something  like  it ; 
but  for  my  part,  I  can  hardly  find  a  shadow  of  resemblance  between 
the  one  transaction  and  the  other.  Abraham  had  his  son  a  gift  from 
God,  God  had  his  Son  by  ineffable  generation ;  Abraham  owed  every 
thing  he  had  to  God,  God  owed  us  nothing ;  Abraham  could  not  have 
kept  Isaac  back  from  God,  but  not  all  heaven,  or  earth,  or  hell,  could 
have  ravished  God's  eternal  Son  from  his  Father's  bosom.  Abraham, 
in  offering  up  Isaac,  performed  an  act  of  obedience  as  well  as  of  high 
and  generous  affection,  but  God  owed  nothing  to  us.  Whereunto, 
then,  will  ye  liken  these  doings  of  the  Lord  God,  and  to  what  will 
you  Compare  them  ?  See  Jehovah,  in  his  ancient  council,  deliberating 
with  his  Son  about  the  future  redemption  of  a  future  world,  and  de- 
liberating whether  his  own  Son  or  man  he  should  spare  —  his  own  Sou, 
innocent  and  holy;  man,  polluted  and  gviilty  —  his  own  Son,  the 
brightness  of  his  own  glory  ;  man,  the  image  of  the  devil  —  his  own 


132  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

Son,  the  express  image  of  the  Father's  person,  beloved  of  all  heaven; 
man,  an  atom  of  dust,  a  child  of  earth,  an  heir  of  hell,  covered  over 
with  the  smoke  of  the  bottomless  pit,  besmeared  all  over  -with  the  lep- 
rosy of  abominable  crimes.  See  Jehovah  deliberating  -whether  his 
OTVTi  Son  or  man  he  should  spare.  How  wondrous  is  it !  How  amaz- 
ing that  such  deliberations  should  be  followed  by  such  results !  Hear 
the  declaration  of  the  apostle  on  the  subject ;  hear  the  oracles  of  God 
telling  us  the  result  of  the  whole  deliberation  :  "  He  spared  not  his 
own  Son,  but  freely  gave  him  up  for  us  all."  Oh,  amazing  act  of 
generosity,  of  noble  interference,  of  high,  unutterable  love ;  in  fact  we 
have  no  language  at  all  to  express  it ;  the  mind  of  an  angel,  as  well 
as  the  mind  of  man,  is  overwhelmed  and  confounded ;  we  must  all  sit 
down  together  in  the  attitude  of  little  children  ;  we  can  only  proclaim, 
"  0,  the  depths,  the  heights  of  the  knowledge  of  God,  they  —  they 
are  past  finding  out !  "  "  him  being  delivered  by  the  determinate 
counsel  and  foreknowledge  of  God,  ye  have  taken,  and  by  wicked 
hands  crucified  and  slain."  Although  we  have  no  line  wherewith  we 
can  fathom  this  mystery,  wherewith  we  can  reach  the  depths,  —  no 
means  of  ascertaining  the  height,  and  breadth,  and  length  of  this 
profound  mystery,  we  find  no  difficulty  to  see  the  design  of  it.  This 
is  the 

IV.  and  last  point,  The  design  on  account  of,  and  the  end 
FOR  "WHICH,  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  delivered  up  to  this  death 
—  A  death  so  extraordinary  in  its  nature,  and  so  dolorous 
IN  its  circumstances. 

He  was  delivered  up  for  what?  for  whom  ?  Not  for  his  own  ini- 
quity, for  he  had  none :  not  for  himself,  for  he  was  no  transgressor. 
He  was  conceived  and  bom  in  all  the  beauties  of  holiness ;  from  the 
manger  to  the  cross,  he  was  h61y,  harmless,  undefiled,  and  separate 
from  sinners.  He  could  challenge  the  bitterest  of  his  enemies  and 
say  —  "  "Which  of  you  convinces  me  of  sin  ?  "  And  the  very  cir- 
cumstances attendant  on  his  death,  illustrated  and  proclaimed  the 
fact  of  the  innocency  of  his  life.  Pontius  Pilate,  the  judge  that  pre- 
sided, called  for  water  and  said,  "  I  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  this 
innocent  man:  I  am  clear."  The  wife  of  the  judge  had  a  dream 
about  the  matter,  and  so  did  the  dream  lie  upon  her  spirit,  that,  unus- 
ual as  it  was  to  send  any  message  to  a  judge  on  the  bench,  she  sent 
to  him  on  the  bench,  and  said,  "  Have  thou  nothing  to  do  with  the  blood 
of  this  just  man."  Judas,  the  traitor  that  had  betrayed  him,  that 
had  bartered  him  away  for  thirty  pieces  of  silver,  ran  in  among  the 
chief  priests  in  a  frenzy,  flung  down  the  money,  and  said,  "  I  have 


CHRIST   CRUCIFIED.  '  133 

sinned  in  that  I  have  betrayed  innocent  blood."  The  thief  upon  the 
cross  said,  "  This  man  hath  done  nothing  amiss."  The  centurion, 
with  his  hundred  of  soldiers,  planted  around  the  cross  to  see  the  cer- 
tainty of  the  fulfilment  of  the  sentence,  said^rs^,  to  the  honor  of  his 
humanity,  "  This  was  a  righteous  man  !  "  and  then  exclaimed,  to  the 
honor  of  his  divinity,  "  Truly,  this  righteous  man  was  the  Son  of 
God !  "  And  thus  wisdom  is  justified,  not  only  of  her  children,  but 
by  her  enemies  also.  The  very  things  that  were  intended  to  tarnish 
his  innocence,  were  the  means  of  eliciting  and  establishing  it ;  and 
that  not  before  half  of  the  people,  but  when  all  the  people  were  gath- 
ered together  from  Dan  to  Beersheba.  So  true  is  it  that  he  was  de- 
livered not  for  his  own  iniquity,  for  he  never  had  any. 

Now,  we  are  only  acquainted  with  the  iniquity  of  angels  and  men 
— with  the  iniquity  of  fallen  angels,  and  the  iniquity  of  our  own  spe- 
cies —  and  the  question  is  narrowed  to  this :  If  Jesus  were  not  deliv- 
ered for  his  own  iniquity  —  having  none  at  all  —  it  comes  to  this :  he 
was  delivered  for  the  iniquity  either  of  angels  that  sinned,  or  for  our 
iniquity.  Now,  then,  for  which  of  the  two  was  it  ?  Was  it  for  the 
iniquity  of  the  angels  ?  He  passed  by  the  angels ;  he  took  not  hold 
of  their  nature  ;  he  never  was  found  in  fashion  as  an  angel.  Oh  !  I 
love  the  angels,  and  I  will  tell  you  why  I  love  them  ;  among  a  thou- 
sand other  reasons,  I  love  them  for  this  —  that  they  do  not  envy  man 
the  grandeur  and  glory  of  his  being  redeemed  by  the  Son  of  God, 
while  that  part  of  their  own  species  that  are  sunk  into  rebellion,  gone 
away  from  God,  was  not  taken  hold  of  by  the  purposes  of  Jehovah, 
and  not  taken  hold  of  by  the  Son  of  God.  When  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
was  born,  the  angels  sung.  What  did  they  sing  ?  What  did  they 
shout  over  the  plain  of  Bethlehem  ?  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest  " 
—  and  in  hell  peace  ?  No  ;  and  because  they  could  not  sing  in  hell 
peace,  did  they  refuse  to  sing  on  earth  peace  ?  They  could  not  say, 
and  they  did  not  say,  "  Good  will  to  devils,"  to  our  lost  brethren  ; 
but  could  say,  and  they  did  say,  "  Good  will  to  man."  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth was  "  delivered  for  our  offences,  and  was  raised  for  our  justifi- 
cation." He  took  hold  of  our  nature :  "  The  chastisement  of  our 
peace  was  upon  him,  and  with  his  stripes  we  are  healed."  Jesus 
Christ,  the  just,  delivered  himself  up  for  us,  the  unjust,  that  he  might 
bring  us  to  God.  He  saw  human  nature  sinking,  falling,  plunging 
into  ruin,  total  and  eternal  ruin,  and  he  felt  for  us.  Why  he  felt  for 
us,  rather  than  for  angels  that  sinned,  do  not  ask  me ;  I  know  nothing 
about  it  —  I  can  tell  you  nothing  about  the  matter.  It  is  enough  for 
me  to  know,  that  he  loves  me,  and  loves  you,  and  that  he  loves  all 
our  apostate  race.     It  is  the  grandeur  of  the  gospel,  it  is  our  gospel, 


134  '    THE    ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

that  Jesus  of  Nazai'eth  loved  the  human  race.  In  spite  of  its  sinking 
he  came  after  it,  and  caught  it,  and  snatched,  and  hfted  it  out  of  the 
ruin  that  ^vas  enclosing  it  in,  and  gave  it  back  to  God.  "  He  died  the 
just  for  the  unjust,  that  he  might  bring  us  to  God." 

"  Well,  then,  here  comes  in  the  old,  withered,  good-for-nothing  ob- 
jection of  the  Socinians,  -who  are  fain  to  tell  us  that  this  is  a  very 
strange  procedure  —  this  is  a  most  unaccountable  thing  to  say,  that 
Jesus,  the  innocent  and  holy,  should  suffer  for  the  guilty  and  unholy. 
They  tell  us  it  is  an  unjust  thing  that  the  innocent  should  suffer  and 
atone  for  the  guilty ;  but  then  I  ask  them,  why  did  he  suffer,  for  what 
did  he  suffer,  if  it  was  not  to  atone  for  the  guilty  ?  There  was  some 
end  to  be  answered  by  the  suffering  of  the  cross.  AYhen  a  holy  being 
so  distinguished  endured  such  suffering,  there  must  have  been  some 
end  in  view.  Why,  then,  I  ask,  did  he  suffer  ?  0,  they  sky,  he  suf- 
fered to  give  us  an  example  of  suffering,  to  give  us  an  example  of  mag- 
nanimity, to  give  us  a  model  of  patience  under  suffering.  And  they 
talk  about  justice ;  they  bring  an  accusation  of  forming  a  monstrous 
doctrine,  when  I  say  Jesus  Christ  died  to  atone  for  a  guilty  world, — 
and  they  say  he  died  for  a  reason  not  a  millionth  part  so  good !  If 
there  is  injustice  in  his  dying  to  save  a  world  from  the  curse  of  God, 
there  is  a  million  times  more  monstrous  injustice  in  his  dying  merely 
to  teach  us  how  to  suffer.  He  died  by  his  own  consent.  He  was  de 
livered  up,  the  text  indeed  says,  by  the  determinate  counsel  of  God, 
and  by  the  wicked  hands  or  hearts  of  the  Jews,  and  he  was  delivered 
up  as  much  by  his  own  will,  by  his  own  consent,  as  he  was  either  by 
the  determinate  counsel  of  the  Father,  or  the  wicked  hands  and  hearts 
of  the  Jews.  0  what  a  lovely  victim  is  Christ,  not  unwillingly  drag- 
ged to  the  altar,  not  unwillingly  pressed  upon  the  altar  :  oh  no !  What 
bound  him  to  the  cross  ?  Was  it  the  nails  ?  If  he  had  never  been 
fastened  by  any  thing  but  nails,  he  had  never  been  fastened  at  all.  It 
was  love  that  bound  Ijim  to  the  cross ;  it  was  love  that  carried  him  to 
the  cross ;  it  was  love  to  us  that  led  him  to  go  to  the  high  altar  ;  and 
it  was  love  to  us  that  fastened  him  to  that  altar. 

Oh,  for  this  love  of  Christ  —  this  love  of  God !  There  it  is  ;  I  am 
fast ;  you  must  ask  me  no  more.  If  you  ask  me  why  Jesus  died  for 
you,  I  can  only  say  because  he  loved  you.  If  you  ask  me  why  he 
loved  you  rather  than  angels,  I  can  give  no  answer  at  all ;  I  am  lost  in 
an  ocean  of  love  —  I  can  go  no  lower  —  I  do  not  want  to  go  higher  or 
deeper ;  —  it  is  love. 

"  Oh,  for  this  lore  let  rocks  and  hills 
Their  Instin;,'  silence  break  : 
Anil  all  harmonious  human  tongues 
The  Savior's  praises  apeak." 


CKRI6T   CRUCIFIED.  135 

I  am  anxious,  before  I  close  the  subject,  to  have  the  matter  brought 
home  to  jour  consciences,  and  to  know  how  you  stand  affected  to  this 
great  subject,  to  know  whether  or  not  you  have  believed  on  this  cruci- 
fied Savior  to  the  salvation  of  your  souls.  It  is  not  enough  to  hear  of 
this  Savior,  and  of  this  salvation ;  it  is  not  enough  to  hear  of  this  cru- 
cifixion, and  the  love  that  prompted  it ;  there  must  be  a  personal  ap- 
propriation of  the  benefit  of  the  death  of  Christ,  and  the  blood  that 
was  poured  out  on  mount  Calvary — the  blood  that  was  shed  there 
must  be  poured  out  on  our  hearts  —  must  be  applied  here  —  the  blood 
that  was  shed  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  must  be  sprinkled  on  our 
hearts  now,  to-night,  this  hour,  this  moment.  "  His  blood  be  on  you 
and  your  children,"  may  it  be  sprinkled  on  all,  to  wash  away  your  sins, 
to  justify  your  persons,  to  sanctify  your  natures.  Oh,  if  the  blood  of 
the  Lamb  shall  be  found  upon  you  at  your  dying  day,  at  the  day  of 
judgment,  happy  are  ye ;  "  happy  the  people  that  is  in  such  a  case." 
You  remember  reading  of  the  case  of  the  children  of  Israel,  of  the 
sprinkling  of  the  blood  of  the  paschal  lamb  upon  the  door-posts  of  the 
houses  in  Egypt.  Why  was  that  blood  sprinkled  on  the  door-posts  ? 
You  say  it  was  to  distinguish  the  houses  of  the  Israelites  from  the 
houses  of  the  Egyptians.  What,  could  not  the  omniscience  of  Jeho- 
vah distinguish  between  the  houses  of  Israel  and  the  houses  of  Egypt 
without  a  visible  mark  being  upon  the  doors  of  the  one  to  identify  it  ? 
As  I  take  it,  the  true,  the  grand  reason,  why  the  blood  of  the  paschal 
lamb  was  sprmkled  upon  the  door-posts  of  the  houses  of  Israel,  was  to 
teach  you,  and  your  children,  and  your  children's  children  to  the  latest 
generation  of  those  that  shall  accompany  you  to  the  throne  of  God, 
that  the  atonement  of  Christ  must  be  apphed  by  faith,  that  the  blood 
shed  must  be  sprinkled.  It  was  not  enough  that  the  passover  was 
killed,  that  the  blood  of  the  lamb  was  poured  out,  but  it  must  be  ap- 
plied —  as  the  blood  was  sprinkled  on  the  door-posts,  so  the  blood  of 
the  atoning  Lamb  must  be  applied  to  us  by  faith. 

For  my  part,  I  see  no  reason  why  the  apphcation  should  not  take 
place  this  instant.  I  feel  assured  that,  as  to  many,  it  has  taken  place 
already;  but  I  fear  as  to  some,  I  fear  as  to  several,  the  application 
has  not  yet  taken  place  ;  and  if  you  die  before  it  occurs,  it  had  been 
better  for  you  never  to  have  been  bom.  And  why  do  you  not  look 
for  the  application  to  be  made  just  now  ?  You  very  likely  will  admit 
with  the  preacher,  that  the  application  must  take  place  some  time  or 
other,  some  how  or  other,  before  you  die  ;  but  then  you  have  a  strange 
way  of  settling  the  matter.  At  present  you  think  some  how  or  other, 
in  some  undefinable  and  mysterious  manner,  the  thing  is  to  take  place ; 
I  tell  you  it  is  to  take  place  by  the  application  of  the  truth  of  the  gos- 


186  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

pel,  and  I  know  of  no  time  and  no  occasion  so  likelj  for  the  application 
to  take  place  as  wlien  you  are  hearing  the  gospel  in  which  the  truth  is 
revealed  ;  as  when  you  are  in  the  house  of  God,  and  on  the  day  of 
God.  You  are  at  the  pool-side,  but  I  want  you  to  get  into  the  pool. 
It  was  quite  mournful,  it  was  quite  melancholy,  to  hear  the  story  of 
the  man  lying  at  the  pool  all  those  years.  You  are  here,  get  into  the 
pool.  You  must  not  be  at  it,  merely,  but  must  step  in.  May  the  an- 
gel trouble  the  waters,  that  you  may  wash  and  be  well !  May  you  be- 
lieve and  be  saved,  believe  and  live,  and  live  for  ever.     Amen. 


SERMON   XI. 

THE     SONG     OF     ANGELS. 
BY  REV.  EDWARD  PARSONS,  JR. 
"  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on  earth  peace,  good-will  towards  men." — Luke  ii.  14. 

Nothing  was  ever,  humanly  speaking,  more  unlikely,  than  that  the 
cause  of  the  despised  and  persecuted  Nazarene  should  have  survived 
its  universaUy-furious  opposition,  or  escaped  its  apparently  inevitable 
disgrace.  For,  in  the  external  character  of  Jesus,  there  were  no  glo- 
ries that  were  calculated  to  arrest  the  attention,  or  to  secure  the  ap- 
plause of  a  wicked  and  a  corrupted  world.  If  you  refer  to  his  birth, 
be  was  born  in  a  manger.  If  you  refer  to  his  circumstances,  he  was 
*'  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief."  If  you  refer  to  his 
state,  he  was  so  poor,  that,  though  "  the  foxes  had  their  holes  and  the 
birds  of  the  air  their  nests,  he  had  not  where  to  lay  his  head."  If  you 
refer  to  his  mission,  he  came  to  commence  no  earthly  dynasty  and  to 
establish  no  earthly  throne  ;  for  he  came  "  to  seek  and  to  save  that 
which  was  lost."  If  you  refer  to  his  name,  he  assumed  no  name  re- 
nowned in  the  schools  of  philosophy,  or  in  the  annals  of  war ;  for  his 
name  was  called  Jesus,  because  "  he  should  save  his  people  from  their 
sins."  If  you  refer  to  his  authority,  "  his  kingdom  was  not  of  this 
world."  If  you  refer  to  his  followers,  they  were  twelve  poor,  ilhterate, 
and  uneducated  fishermen.  If  you  refer  to  his  appearance,  "  his  vis- 
age was  marred  more  than  any  man's,  and  his  form  more  than  the 
sons  of  men."  If  you  refer  to  his  death,  he  died  upon  the  summit  of 
Calvary.     He  had  glories ;  but  they  were  invisible  by  mortal  vision. 


SONG  OP  THE  ANGELS.  137 

He  gained  victories  ;  but  thej  -were  solely  the  conquests  of  truth  over 
error.  His  robe  was  the  mockery  of  royalty;  his  sceptre  was  a  reed  ; 
his  throne  was  his  cross ;  and  his  diadem  neither  ghttered  with  jewels, 
nor  blazed  with  gems,  because  it  was  "  a  crown  of  thorns." 

But  the  cause  of  this  despised  individual  has  survived  ;  it  has  sur- 
vived, increasing  its  glory  and  extending  its  praise ;  it  has  survived, 
while  the  desolating  hand  of  time  has  subverted  the  firmest  foundations 
of  human  policy,  and  blasted  the  brightest  glories  of  human  fame. 
And  this  evening,  exulting  in  its  perpetually-increasing  triumph,  during 
the  long  period  of  eighteen  hundred  years,  we  anticipate  the  happiness 
of  the  hour  which  is  approaching,  when  the  nations  shall  rejoice  in  the 
beams  of  "  the  Sun  of  righteousness,"  and  in  the  splendor  of  the  mil- 
lennial day. 

Now  it  has  been  one  demonstration  of  the  superior  glory  of  the  Sa- 
vior, that  it  has  been  identified  with  the  ministry  of  angels.  The  an- 
gels, indeed,  as  "  the  morning  stars  sang  together,"  and  as  "  the  sons 
of  God,"  they  "  shouted  for  joy,"  when  the  Savior  created  this  visible 
universe.  The  angels,  as  you  see  in  the  context  of  this  passage,  were 
with  the  Savior  when  he  entered  into  our  world,  to  die  for  our  sins,  the 
*'just  for  the  unjust,  to  bring  us  unto  God."  They  followed  him  through 
every  stage  and  step  of  his  mediatorial  undertaking,  oft  wondering  how 
and  where  the  scene  of  love  would  end.  When  he  died,  they  sur- 
rounded his  cross,  as  astonished  spectators  of  that  sad  scene  of  unut- 
terable abasement  and  distress.  When  he  rose  from  the  dead,  they 
rolled  away  the  stone  from  the  mouth  of  his  sepulchre. 

"  They  brought  his  chariot  from  above, 
And  bore  him  to  his  throne  ; 
Clapp'd  thoir  triumphant  wings,  and  cried, 
'  The  glorious  work  is  done  !'  " 

Now,  the  words  of  ray  text  constitute  the  song  of  the  angels,  in  con- 
nexion with  the  mediation  and  work  of  Jesus  ;  for  the  shepherds  were 
feeding  their  flocks  on  the  plain  of  Bethlehem,  "  and  suddenly  there 
was  with  the  angel,"  who  appeared  to  them,  "  a  multitude  of  the  hea- 
venly host,  praising  God,  and  saying,  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest, 
and  on  earth  peace,  good-will  toward  men." 

In  these  words,  my  dear  friends,  there  are  three  topics,  to  which,  by 
the  divine  help  and  blessing,  it  is  my  intention  now  for  a  few  moments 
to  direct  your  attention.  First,  you  will  allow  me  to  request  you  to 
refer  to  the  brightness  of  the  divine  glory;  the  angels  exclaimed, 
"  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest."  Secondly,  to  the  excellency  of  the 
divine  influence  ;  they  said,  "  on  earth  peace."  And,  tliirdly,  to  the 
immensity  of  the  divine  love ;  they  said,  "  Good-will  toward   men." 


138  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

And  then  we  shall  attempt  to  close  the  discourse,  by  applying  the  prin- 
ciples contained  in  it  to  the  object  which  has  more  immediately  con- 
vened us. 

In  the  first  place,  tben,  let  us  refer  to  THE  beightness  of  the  di- 
vine GLORY.     The  angels  exclaimed,  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest." 

Now  there  is  nothing  so  essential  to  the  moral  happiness  of  intelli- 
gent beings,  as  proper  views  of  the  character  and  of  the  glory  of  God. 

Since  God  is  the  only  source  of  moral  obligation,  an  acquaintance 
with  his  character  is  essential  to  the  due  discharge  of  that  obligation. 

You  will  always  find  the  moral  characters  and  principles  of  men  to 
be  excellent  or  degraded  in  proportion  to  the  accuracy  of  their  acquaint- 
ance with  the  divine  character  and  claims.  In  proof  of  this,  you  have 
only  to  refer  to  the  history  of  the  world,  and  you  will  find  that  distorted 
ideas  of  the  character  of  God  have  always  been  connected  with  the  per- 
petration of  enormous  crime.  Look  to  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans; 
why  was  it,  that,  according  to  the  testimony  of  Cicero  himself,  the  moSt 
unnatural  lusts  and  disgusting  impurities  were  not  only  tolerated  among 
the  homes  of  private  life,  but  even  committed  in  the  temples  of  their 
deities  —  but  because  of  their  distorted  ideas  of  the  character  of  God  ? 

Look  to  the  ancient  Britons  ;  why  was  it,  that  our  forefathers  acted 
on  the  demoniacal  notion  of  human  sacrifices,  and  imbrued  their  hands 
in  the  blood  of  their  captives  and  victims  — but  because  of  their  dis- 
torted ideas  of  the  character  of  God  ?  Look  to  the  Indians  ;  why  ia 
it,  that  the  wretched  Hindoos  cast  their  writhing  bodies  beneath  the 
wheels  of  the  gigantic  idol's  blood-stained  car,  plunge  their  offspring  in- 
to the  waves  of  the  Ganges,  and  fight  up  their  country  with  the  lurid 
glare  of  the  funeral  piles  of  devoted  widows  —  but  because  of  their 
distorted  ideas  of  the  character  of  God  ?  Look  to  the  modern  French ; 
why  was  it,  that  in  their  country,  during  a  recent  revolution,  deeds 
of  barbarism  and  of  cruelty,  of  licentiousness  and  of  pollution,  of  un- 
precedented and  almost  infernal  atrocity,  were  perpetrated,  which 
are  enough  to  turn  back  the  eyes  of  the  observer  with  disgust  and  with 
horror  —  but  because  of  their  distorted  ideas  of  the  character  of  Gt)d  ? 

Abstracted  from  proper  views  of  the  character  of  God,  every  motive 
to  the  pursuit  of  holiness  must  be  annihilated ;  vice  must  extend  its 
encroaching  claims  and  its  polluting  power ;  and  the  whole  immortal 
being,  as  the  inhabitant  of  a  fatherless  and  forsaken  world,  must  be 
descending  to  the  mansions  of  darkness  and  despair. 

It  is  here,  then,  you  see  the  distinguishing  excellency  of  the  media- 
torial work  of  the  Savior.  He  has  revealed  all  the  perfections  of  God, 
all  the  claims  of  the  great  Legislator  upon  the  obedience  and  reverence 
of  his  creatures,  and  all  the  sanctions  which  are  appended  to  his  laws, 


SONG   OP  TEE   ANGELS.  139 

in  the  joys  and  the  sorrows,  the  terrors  and  the  triumphs  of  the  invis- 
ihle  world.  "  No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time  ;  the  only-begotten 
Son,  -which  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  he  hath  declared  him." — 
"  For  God,  who  commanded  the  light  to  shine  out  of  darkness,  hath 
shined  in  our  hearts,  to  give  us  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory 
of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ."  But  it  is  not  enough  to  say  this. 
It  is  not  enough  to  say  that  the  Lord  Jesus,  in  liis  mediatorial  work, 
has  revealed  the  character  of  God  ;  we  must  also  say  that  he  has  glo- 
rified the  character  of  God.  And  the  accuracy  of  the  ascription  of 
the  angels,  when  they  said,  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,"  can  soon 
be  made  apparent  by  a  few  appropriate  considerations. 

Behold,  in  the  person  and  in  the  work  of  Christ,  the  glory  of  the 
divine  wisdom.  For  the  wisdom  of  God  is  so  illustriously  displayed 
in  the  mediation  of  Jesus,  that  he  is  expressly  called  "  the  wisdom  of 
God ;"  the  gospel  which  he  proclaimed,  is  designated  "  the  wisdom 
of  God  in  a  mystery,  even  the  hidden  wisdom,  which  God  ordained 
before  the  world  unto  our  glory  ; "  and  we  are  told  by  the  same  apos- 
tle, that  "  to  the  principalities  and  powers  in  the  heavenly  places,  hath 
been  made  known  by  the  church  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God."  Ad- 
mire, in  the  mediation  of  Christ,  the  wisdom  of  God — in  the  consti- 
tution of  the  Savior's  person,  so  that,  while  as  man  he  could  be  afflicted, 
and  could  suffer,  and  could  die,  as  God  could  be  exalted,  and  could  be 
enthroned,  and  could  be  adored  —  in  rendering  the  entrance  of  sin 
actually  subservient  to  the  noblest  display  of  the  perfections  of  God, 
and  the  highest  happiness  of  man  —  and  in  such  a  complete  baffling 
of  the  powers  and  principalities  of  hell,  that  we  are  healed  by  our  Sa- 
vior's wounds,  crowned  by  our  Savior's  cross,  absolved  by  our  Savior's 
condemnation,  enriched  by  our  Savior's  poverty,  and  glorified  by  our 
Savior's  disgrace.  Here  alone  there  was  abundant  reason  for  the 
exclamation  of  the  angels,"  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest." 

Again,  behold  in  the  mission  and  in  the  work  of  Christ,  the  glory  of 
the  divine  power.  Power  was  glorified  in  tlte  creation  of  the  fabric  of 
the  universe  ;  power  has  been  glorified  in  the  perpetual  revolutions  of 
the  planetary  worlds,  of  which  the  universe  is  composed.  But  all  the 
manifestations  of  the  power  of  God,  that  have  ever  been  presented  to 
us  in  the  works  of  creation  or  in  the  dispensations  of  providence,  sink 
into  absolute  insignificance,  when  compared  with  its  manifestation  in 
the  mediation  of  Jesus.  Go,  and  muse  on  the  ministry  of  Christ. — 
What  though  he  was  nailed  to  the  accursed  tree  — what  though  he  was 
taunted,  in  the  midst  of  his  dying  agonies,  by  the  scoffing  blasphemers, 
who  said,  "  If  thou  be  Christ,  save  thyself  and  us  :  if  thou  be  the  Son 
of  God,  come  down  from  the  cross."     What  though  his  disciples  were 


140  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

lost  in  despair,  and  his  enemies  were  rejoicing  in  tlie  imagined  infamy 
of  his  cause,  Avhen  he  was  consigned  to  the  lowlj  sepulchre  of  the  rock, 
with  a  band  of  Roman  soldiers  for  his  guard  —  was  there  not  power, 
when,  amidst  the  agonies  of  death,  he  changed  the  heart  of  a  blas- 
phemingv  malefactor,  and  took  his  renovated  spirit  with  him,  as  a  trophy 
of  his  grace,  to  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ?  Was  there  not  power,  when 
he  bore  for  us  the  burden  of  that  wrath,  which  would  otherwise  have 
sunk  us  down  to  the  lowest  and  to  the  deepest  hell  ?  Was  there  not 
power,  when  he  broke  the  dart  of  death — when  he  demolished  the 
throne  of  the  king  of  terrors  —  when  "  through  death  he  destroyed 
him  that  had  the  power  of  death,  that  is  the  devil,  and  dehvered  them, 
who,  through  fear  of  death,  were  all  their  hfetime  subject  to  bondage  ;" 
so  that  he  "hath  abolished  death,  and  brought  life  and  immortality  to 
light  through  the  gospel  ?  "  Was  there  not  power  in  the  supernatural 
effects  which  attended  the  first  preaching  of  his  gospel,  by  which  the 
whole  fabric  of  Gentile  idolatry  and  Jewish  superstition  was  overthrown, 
and  the  banner  of  the  cross  was  elevated  above  the  palaces  of  the 
Caesars  ?  And  has  there  not  been  power  in  the  emancipation  of  mil- 
lions and  myriads  from  the  thraldom  of  their  corruption,  who  are  now 
consecrating  all  the  faculties  of  their  being,  and  all  the  duration  of 
eternity,  to  the  utterance  of  his  praise  ?  Where  is  the  individual,  who, 
in  connection  with  these  observations,  does  not  again  see  the  justice  of 
the  ascription  of  the  angels  —  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest  ?" 

Again,  you  may  behold,  in  the  mediatorial  work  of  the  Savior,  the 
glory  of  the  divine  holiness  and  justice.  If  every  son  and  daughter 
of  Adam  were  to  be  cast  into  unquenchable  fire — if  every  angel  in 
heaven  were  to  be  united  with  those  fallen  spirits,  who  are  reserved  in 
blackness  and  chains  of  darkness  unto  the  judgment  of  the  great  day 
—  if  the  earth  which  we  inhabit  were  to  be  transformed  into  a  multi- 
tude of  worlds  —  if  ev^ery  blade  of  grass  —  if  every  atom  of  sand  — 
if  every  drop  of  dew  —  if  every  particle  of  earth  were  to  be  changed 
into  incomprehensible  numbers  of  inteUigent  creatures,  and  if  all,  on 
account  of  sin,  were  to  experience  the  devouring  wrath  of  God,  and 
were  to  welter  forever  in  seas  of  fire  rolling  in  the  caverns  of  the 
damned,  it  would  form  no  such  manifestation  of  the  justice  and  holiness 
of  God,  as  is  presented  to  us  in  the  mediation  of  Christ.  n 

O  what  a  groan  was  that ! 
Heard  from  heav'n's  highent  throne  to  earth's  deep  centre. 
'Twaa  our  enormous  load  of  heavy  guilt, 
Which  bow'd  his  Mossed  head,  o'erwLclm'd  his  cross, 
Made  groan  the  centre,  burst  eartli's  marble  womb, 
With  panga,  strange  pangs,  deliver'd  of  hor  dead. 
Hell  howl'd,  and  Hoav'nthat  hour  let  fall  a  fear; 
Heav'n  bled,  that  man  might  live ;  heav'n  wept,  that  man 
Might  never  die. 


SONG    OF  THE  ANGELS.  141 

"Who  can  stand  on  the  hill  of  Calvary  — ■  who  can  stand  under  the 
shadow  of  the  cross  —  who  can  see  the  Savior's  head  hanging  over  his 
agitated  bosom  —  who  can  perceive  the  spear  of  the  murderer  pene- 
trating his  heart,  and  then  "who,  after  contemplating  these  things,  and 
recollecting  that  every  pang  that  he  bore,  and  every  tear  that  he  shed, 
were  all  on  account  of  the  guilt  of  our  offences  —  where  is  the  indi- 
vidual, I  say,  who,  after  adverting  to  matters  like  these,  is  not  ready, 
with  overwhelming  gratitude  and  with  penitent  tears,  to  adopt  the  lan- 
guage of  the  seraphim,  and  to  cry,  "  Holy,  holy,  holy  is  the  Lord  of 
hosts  ;  the  whole  earth  is  filled  with  his  glory  ?  "  Do  you  not,  then, 
my  friends,  again  see  the  justice  of  the  angelic  ascription,  "  Glory  to 
God  in  the  highest  ?" 

But  behold  again,  in  the  mission  and  in  the  work  of  the  Savior,  the 
glory  of  the  divine  love.  Now  suppose  a  monarch  seated  upon  a  throne 
of  unbounded  royalty  and  power,  suppose  him  surrounded  with  all  the 
insignia  of  despotic  authority,  suppose  him  covering  continents  with  his 
armies  and  the  ocean  with  his  fleets,  and  surpassing,  in  the  grandeur 
of  his  achievements,  the  most  splendid  exploits  of  ancient  or  of  mod- 
em times  ;  then  suppose,  that  he  were  to  pass  from  the  splendor  of  his 
court  and  the  radiance  of  his  royalty,  with  all  the  meltings  of  pity,  to 
relieve  a  single  family,  bowed  down  with  wretchedness  and  abandoned 
to  despair ;  I  would  ask  you,  whether  that  one  single  act  would  not 
redound  more  to  his  glory  than  the  most  illustrious  achievements  of  his 
policy,  or  the  most  splendid  successes  of  his  arms.  Now,  my  friends, 
what  is  all  this  compared  with  the  love  of  God  for  a  lost  world,  as  dis- 
played in  the  mediatorial  work  of  Jesus  ?  Although  our  Savior  had 
existed  from  distant  ages  in  his  own  uncreated  being,  perfectly  happy 
in  himself  and  surrounding  his  throne  with  a  lustre,  before  which 
even  angelic  intelligences  were  confounded  —  although  he  had  created 
a  universe  of  worlds,  so  vast  that  if  the  whole  system  of  which  wo 
form  a  part  were  to  be  annihilated,  its  loss  would  no  more  be  felt  than 
the  subtraction  of  a  blade  of  grass  from  the  foliage  of  the  field,  or  the 
fall  of  a  leaf  from  the  verdure  of  the  forest  —  yet,  when  miserable 
man  rebelled,  when  he  raised  his  arm  against  Ilim  who  could  have 
crushed  him  with  a  stroke  or  damned  him  with  a  frown,  he  descended 
to  this  almost  imperceptible  spot  in  the  realms  of  being ;  he  assumed 
the  body  of  man,  who  is  a  worm  ;  he  descended  to  the  lowest  recesses 
of  sorrow  and  woe  ;  he  died  an  ignominious  death  upon  the  cross ;  he 
made-  atonement  for  sin  and  reconciliation  for  iniquity ;  he  reunited 
heaven  and  earth  ;  he  filled  the  whole  celestial  world  with  the  trophies 
of  his  grace,  and  he  raised  countless  multitudes  of  the  redeemed  to  a 
happiness  sublimer  than  that  of  Eden,  and  to  honors  more  exalted  than 


142  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

those  of  the  angels,  to  the  very  throne  of  Deity,  the  Father,  the  Son 
and  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  eternal  all  in  all.  0  stupendous  love !  0 
infinite  mercy !  0  grace  beyond  degree  !  He  descended  ;  he  Tvas 
born ;  he  suflered ;  he  wept ;  he  bled  ;  he  expired.  When  the  Savior 
came  into  our  world,  Jehovah  smiled  with  unexpressible  tenderness 
from  the  throne  of  his  dominion :  the  groans  of  the  whole  creation, 
which  has  travailed  in  pain  until  now,  were  hushed  into  a  momentary 
pause  ;  a  thrilling  note  of  joy  resounded  to  the  extremities  of  the  uni- 
verse ;  angels,  as  you  see  in  the  context  of  this  passage,  resting  for  a 
moment  from  their  customary  employ,  crowded  to  heaven's  battlements, 
as  admiring  spectators  of  the  wonderful  scene ;  and  man  that  was  a 
rebel  was  pardoned,  man  that  was  a  wanderer  was  reclaimed,  man  that 
was  condemned  was  blessed,  man  that  was  accursed  was  redeemed. 
"  Blessing,  and  honor,  and  glory,  and  power,  and  might,  and  majesty 
and  dominion  be  unto  him,  that  sitteth  upon  the  throne,  and  to  the 
Lamb  for  ever  and  ever."  Do  you  not,  then,  again  see  the  justice  of 
the  angelic  ascription,  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest  ?  " 

And  here  I  must  advance  one  step  further,  and  I  shall  only  make 
the  observation,  before  I  proceed  to  the  second  part  of  my  discourse  : 
in  the  mediatorial  work  of  Christ,  you  have  all  the  perfections  of  God 
in  harmony.  Here  there  is  not  the  glory  of  mercy  at  the  expense  of 
justice  ;  here  there  is  not  the  glory  of  wisdom  at  the  expense  of  power ; 
but  the  glory  of  all  the  divine  attributes  united.  Here  unsullied  jus- 
tice, and  immaculate  holiness  and  infinite  grace  are  all  mingled ;  not 
one  of  them  darkens  or  eclipses  the  other,  but  they  shine  with  united 
beams  and  concentrated  radiance. 

"  Here  his  whole  name  appears  complete, 

Nor  wit  can  guess,  nor  reason  prova 
Which  of  the  letters  best  is  writ, 

The  power,  the  wisdom,  or  the  love." 

Thus,  with  this  line  of  illustration,  we  might  proceed  to  an  almost 
indefinite  extent ;  but  enough,  I  trust,  has  been  adduced  to  you  to  show 
the  justice  of  the  ascription  of  the  angels,  when,  adverting  to  the  medi- 
atorial work  of  Immanuel,  they  said,  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest." 
There,  then,  is  the  brightness  of  the  divine  glory. 

Let  us  now  proceed,  in  the  second  place,  to  refer  to  the  excellen- 
cy OF  the  divine  influence.  The  angels,  you  observe,  not  only  said, 
"  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,"  but  they  also  said,  "  On  earth  peace." 

Now,  my  friends,  one  of  the  greatest  evils,  by  which  our  world  can 
be  afilicted,  is  to  he  found  in  war.  It  is  one  of  the  most  hideous  of 
all  the  train  of  sin.  Ever  since  the  time  of  the  first  murderer  it  has 
stalked  over  our  world,  brandishing  the  torch  of  the  incendiary,  and 


SOXG   OF   THE   ANGELS.  143 

marching  to  the  -work  of  destruction,  preceded  by  terror  and  flame, 
followed  by  devastation,  creating  the  riot  of  death  and  the  carnival  of 
the  grave.  Go  to  the  field  of  battle  ;  and  amidst  the  alternations  from 
cold  malignity  to  furious  rage,  amidst  the  cries  of  the  wounded,  the 
shrieks  of  the  dying,  the  dashing  of  weapons,  and  the  clangor  of  ar- 
tillery, learn  the  demoniacal  character  of  war.  Follow  the  march  of  a 
hostile  army  through  a  devastated  country :  and  while  you  see  opulent 
cities  plundered  by  a  brutal  soldiery,  and  abandoned  to  the  reign  of 
cruelty  and  lust,  the  habitations  of  peaceful  industry  committed  to  the 
flames,  and  humanity  itself  expiring  before  its  progress,  confess  again 
the  demoniacal  character  of  war.  Eefer  to  the  invariable  influence  of 
war  upon  those  nations  where  a  fondness  for  it  has  prevailed  ;  it  has 
annihilated  the  agriculture  and  commerce  of  the  richest  nations  that 
were  ever  presented  to  our  view  by  the  geography  of  the  globe.  And 
more  ;  it  has  emptied  earth  and  peopled  hell ;  it  has  been  employed  to 
make  angels  weep  and  fiends  triumph  over  the  deplorable  aspect  of  this 
guilty  world.  Only  think,  for  a  moment,  of  the  numbers  that  war  has 
destroyed ;  you  are  told,  by  one  of  the  best  historians  of  ancient  or 
modern  times,  that,  in  fifty  battles  that  were  fought  by  Ccesar,  he 
trampled  upon  the  corpses  of  1,192,000  of  his  fellow-creatures:  and  it 
is  no  exaggeration  to  say,  that  war  has  actually  immolated  a  greater 
number  of  individuals  than  are  now  to  be  found  upon  the  surface  of 
the  earth.  Now  suppose  that,  by  some  exertion  of  supernatural  power, 
the  whole  earth  were  to  be  depopulated,  suppose  that  its  cities  were  to 
be  destroyed,  that  its  houses  were  to  be  emptied,  that  its  inhabitants 
were  to  be  anniliilated,  and  that  the  whole  world  were  to  become  a 
great  charnel-house  or  cemetery,  filled  with  the  bleaching  bones  and 
corrupting  bodies  of  the  dead  ;  how  intensely  shocking  is  the  idea  ! 
But  this  chimera  of  destruction,  war  has  actually  realized  ;  this  immen- 
sity of  ruin,  war  has  actually  accomplished  ;  and  had  it  not  been  for  a 
restraming  providence,  by  war  human  society  would  long  since  have 
become  extinct,  the  last  man  would  have  expired,  and  God  would  have 
been  despoiled  of  the  revenue  of  his  praise. 

But  let  it  be  remarked,  that  the  spirit  of  Christianity  is  essentially 
the  spirit  of  peace.  And  when  the  angels  contemplated  the  crimson 
seas  of  human  gore  which  have  stained  the  soil  of  almost  every  coun- 
try under  heaven,  and  then  when  they  remembered,  that,  by  the  tran- 
quiflizing  influence  of  the  gospel  of  Christ,  the  passions  of  man  would 
be  assuaged,  and  the  Hon  transformed  into  a  lamb,  so  that,  in  j^rocess 
of  time,  the  whole  universe  would  be  a  temple  of  amity  and  concord, 
over  the  gates  of  which  the  inscription  would  be  found,  "  Behold  how 
good  and  how  pleasant  it  is  for  brethren  to  dwell  together  in  unity  !  " 


144  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

Do  you  not  see  abundant  reason  why  they  should  associate  •with  the 
ascription  of  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,"  the  exclamation,  "  on 
earth,  peace  ? " 

I  have  said  that  the  spirit  of  the  gospel  is  essentially  the  spirit  of 
peace  ;  find  me  a  single  man,  who  has  been  brought  to  be  subject  to 
the  power  of  the  truth,  whose  passions  are  not  calmed,  and  whose  vio- 
lence is  not  subdued.  I  have  said  that  the  spirit  of  the  gospel  is 
essentially  the  spirit  of  peace ;  no  sooner  were  its  influences  extensive- 
ly diffused,  than  those  infamous  gladiatorial  spectacles,  so  common  in 
the  latter  ages  of  the  Roman  empire  —  to  which  even  females,  forget- 
ting the  mildness  and  tenderness  of  their  sex,  crowded  to  see  their 
fellow-creatures  dying  by  the  dagger's  point,  or  amidst  the  bowlings  of 
wild  beasts  —  sink  into  oblivion.  Again,  I  have  said  that  the  spirit  of 
the  gospel  is  essentially  the  spirit  of  peace  :  one  of  its  fundamental 
pruiciples  is,  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself;  "  and  one  of 
its  unalterable  maxims  is,  "  If  thine  enemy  hunger,  feed  him  ;  if  he 
thirst,  give  him  drink  ;  for  in  so  doing  thou  shalt  heap  coals  of  fire  upon 
his  head."  Once  more  ;  I  say,  the  spirit  of  the'  gospel  is  essentially 
the  spirit  of  peace  ;  and  when  that  enrapturing  era  shall  arrive,  when 
Immanuel  shall  sway  his  sceptre  from  the  northern  to  the  southern 
pole,  when  he  shall  extend  his  ilhmitable  dominion,  so  as  to  receive 
the  homage  and  the  adoration  of  all  the  creatures  he  has  formed,  then 
the  demon  of  war  shall  die,  then  the  temple  of  Janus  shall  be  closed, 
then  the  sword  shall  be  put  into  an  eternal  scabbard,  then  a  heaven- 
directed  messenger  shall  wave  the  olive  branch  over  the  distracted  na- 
tions, then  a  voice,  louder  than  a  thousand  thunders,  coming  from  the 
excellent  glory,  shall  be  heard  amidst  the  tumults  of  our  world,  crying, 
"  Peace,  peace ;  be  still,  be  still."  The  children  of  the  same  Father 
and  creatures  of  the  same  God  shall  crowd  around  the  cross  as  their 
centre,  with  redemption  for  their  theme,  and  with  heaven  for  their 
home  ;  and  then  the  triumphant  watchAvord  of  all  the  tribes  and  fami- 
lies of  man  shall  be,  "  Here  there  is  neither  barbarian,  Scythian,  bond 
nor  free,  Greek  nor  Jew  ;  Christ  is  all  and  in  all."  Hasten  on,  ye 
circling  years,  and  bring  this  blessed  period,  when  all  the  inhabitants 
of  the  earth  shall  praise  him  —  come,  happy  and  holy  day,  which  our 
inspired  prophets  have  described,  and  of  which  our  holy  poets  have 
sung,  when  the  Savior's  name  shall  endure  for  ever,  Avhcn  it  shall  con- 
tinue as  long  as  the  sun  and  the  moon,  when  the  whole  earth  shall  be 
blessed  in  him,  and  all  nations  shall  call  him  blessed. 

You  perceive,  then,  my  dear  friends,  Avhy  it  was  that  the  angels, 
"when  they  heard  of  the  mediatorial  work  of  Christ,  not  only  exclaimed, 


SONG    OF   THE   ANGELS.  145 

"  Glor J  to  God  in  the  highest,"  but  connected  that  exclamation -ivith 
the  words,  "  on  earth  peace." 

And  then,  thirdly,  you  must  advert  to  the  immensity  of  the  di- 
vine LOVE.  Now  here  alone  there  is  abundant  matter  for  a  sermon  ; 
but,  inasmuch  as  I  have  to  set  before  you  the  claims  of  an  institution, 
which  solicits  the  approval  and  liberal  contributions  of  all  who  are 
within  these  walls,  I  shall  waive  many  of  the  topics  which  otherwise  I 
should  have  presented,  and  I  shall  only  suggest  those  particular  thoughts 
which  may  bring  the  subject  to  a  happy  conclusion. 

There  is  something  truly  astounding  in  the  declaration,  "  Good-will 
toward  men  ;  "  the  good- will  of  God  toward  man,  rebel  man,  insulting 
man,  blaspheming  man,  man  —  though  wooed  and  awed,  blessed  and 
chastised  —  a  rebel  still,  a  rebel  amidst  the  thunders  of  the  throne. — 
"  Good-will  toward  men !  "  no  good-will  of  this  description  was  dis- 
played to  the  angels  ;  when  they  sinned  they  were  irrecoverably  lost ; 
when  they  sinned,  they  were  exiled  from  their  seats  of  bhss  ;  but 
when  men  sinned,  we  find  them  elevated  to  those  vacant  thrones. 

"  O,  love  of  infinite  degree  '. 

Unmeasurable  grace  ! 
Must  heav'n's  eternal  darling  die. 

To  save  the  tiait'rou8  race  ? 

Must  angels  sink  for  ever  down, 

To  burn  in  quenchless  fire, 
While  God  forsakes  his  shining  throne, 
To  raise  us  wretches  higher  ? 

O  for  this  love  let  rocks  and  hills 

Their  lasting  silence  break, 
And  all  harmonious  human  tongues 

The  Savior's  praises  speak." 

"  Good-will  towai'd  men  !  "  Now  in  order  to  understand  the  com- 
prehensive meaning  of  this,  ponder  upon  the  words,  "  God  commended 
his  love  toward  us,  in  that  while  we  were  yet  sinners  Christ  died  for 
us."  Ponder  again  upon  this  declaration,  "  God,  who  is  rich  in  mercy, 
for  his  great  love  wherewith  he  loved  us,  even  when  we  wei'e  dead  in 
sins,  hath  quickened  us  together  with  Christ,  (by  grace  ye  are  saved,) 
and  hath  raised  us  up  together  and  made  us  sit  together  in  heavenly 
places  in  Christ  Jesus."  Ponder  again,  "  Not  by  works  of  righteous- 
ness which  we  have  done,  but  according  to  his  mercy  he  hath  saved 
us,  by  the  washing  of  regeneration  and  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
which  he  shed  on  us  abundantly  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Savior,  that, 
being  justified  by  his  grace,  we  should  be  made  heirs  according  to  the 
hope  of  eternal  life."  "  Good- will  toward  men  !  "  Only  refer,  my 
friends,  to  the  appropriateness,  to  the  appUcable  power  of  the  good- 
will of  God  to  our  circumstances  and  wants  ;  and  then  let  your  hearts 
10 


146  THE    ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

bound  with  love,  and  let  your  bosoms  burn  witb  gratitude.  Think  of 
the  hours  of  penitence  ;  then  think  of  the  good-will  of  God,  and  go  on 
your  way  with  the  prophetic  song,  "  0  Lord,  I  will  praise  thee  ;  though 
thou  wast  angry  with  we,  thine  anger  is  turned  away,  and  thou  com- 
fortest  me."  Think  of  affliction  ;  and  then  think  of  the  good-will  of 
God,  and  come  to  the  conclusion  of  the  apostle,  when  he  said,  "  Our 
light  affliction,  which  is  but  for  a  moment,  worketh  for  us  a  far  more 
exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory."  Think  of  the  hour  of  death; 
and  then  think  of  the  good-will  of  God  to  man,  and  confront  the  last 
enemy  with  the  triumphant  exclamation,  "  0  grave,  where  is  thy  vic- 
tory ?  0  death,  where  is  thy  sting  ?  "  Think  of  the  judgment-day, 
of  the  conflagration  of  the  globe,  of  the  melting  of  the  elements,  of 
the  passing  away  of  the  heavens,  of  the  burning  of  the  earth,  of  the 
rearing  of  the  great  white  throne,  and  of  the  pronunciation  of  the  irre- 
vocable destiny  of  the  whole  human  race  ;  and  then  think  of  the  good- 
will of  God,  and  anticipate  the  utterance  of  the  words,  "  Well  done, 
good  and  faithful  servant,  enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord."  Think 
of  the  ages  of  eternity,  rolling  for  ever  and  for  ever,  either  in  heaven 
or  in  hell ;  and  then  think  of  the  good-will  of  God,  and  you  may  turn 
to  "  the  peace  of  God,  which  passeth  all  understanding,"  flowing  from 
his  throne,  interminable  like  the  perfections  of  .his  nature,  and  passing 
all  knowledge  like  the  heights  and  depths  of  his  love. 

Thus  you  see,  my  dear  friends,  that,  if  you  advert  even  to  the  sur- 
face of  the  subject,  if  you  even  contemplate  it  as  it  presents  itself  to 
the  most  superficial  observer,  you  find  abundant  reason  why  the  song 
of  the  angels  at  the  birth  of  the  Savior  should  be,  "  Glory  to  God  in 
the  highest,  and  on  earth  peace,  good-will  toward  men." 

Now  it  would  ill  become  me  to  apply  these  principles  to  the  matter 
that  has  convened  us  this  evening,  if  I  did  not,  before  I  proceed,  make 
my  appeal  to  this  numerous  auditory,  while  I  ask  of  all  the  individuals 
of  whom  it  is  composed,  if  they  have  any  acquaintance  with  the  medi- 
ation of  Christ,  thus  bringing  "  glory  to  God,"  thus  diffusing  "  peace 
on  earth,"  and  thus  connected  with . "  good-will  to  men."  Ah !  my 
dear  hearers,  it  will  be  of  no  consequence  to  you  who  may  be  saved 
if  you  are  not ;  and  it  will  be  of  no  avail  to  you  who  may  pass  through 
the  golden  gates  of  the  celestial  city  into  the  new  Jerusalem,  if  you 
are  not  there.  Allow  me  this  evening  to  make  my  appeal  to  you.  I 
remember  how,  two  and  twenty  years  ago,  in  this  place,  I  first  com- 
memorated the  Savior's  dying  love,  at  a  Missionary  Communion  ;  since 
that  time  I  have  never  been  within  the  walls  of  this  edifice  ;  and  such 
is  the  uncertainty  of  human  life,  that  it  is  exceedingly  probable  we 
never  shall  be  collected  together  again,  until  we  stand  before  the  judg- 


SONG   OF  THE  ANGELS.  147 

ment-seat  of  Christ.  Xow  I  must  be  permitted,  under  tliese  circum- 
stances, though  "  in  "weakness,  and  in  fear,  and  much  trembling  "  —  I 
must  be  permitted,  before  I  bring  this  discourse  to  a  conclusion,  to 
make  one  appeal  to  jou.  Now  I  ask  you  —  I  ask  you  —  if  you  have 
any  experimental  and  personal  acquaintance  with  the  mediation  of 
Christ,  the  sum  and  the  substance  of  which  are  ]i^esented  to  you  in 
the  song  of  the  angels.  Yonder,  I  fear,  may  be  found  an  individual, 
who,  after  having  heard  the  gospel  month  after  month  and  year  after 
year,  has  only  realized  one  influence  from  it,  hardening  his  heart  and 
preparing  him  as  fuel  for  the  flame.  And  I  fear,  many  in  this  place  at 
the  present  tune,  know  not  the  power  of  prayer,  have  never  uttered 
the  words,  "  Lord,  save  us,  or  we  perish,"  and  are  still  at  a  distance 
from  the  shelter  of  the  Redeemer's  love.  Poor,  unfortunate  individ- 
uals !  have  pity,  have  pity  upon  yourselves ;  if  you  turn  aside  from 
the  Savior,  there  is  no  other  sacrifice  for  sin,  and  you  are  actually  per- 
petrating, with  suicidal  hands,  the  murder  of  your  everlasting  peace. 
Poor,  unfortunate  individuals  !  have  pity,  have  pity  upon  yourselves  ; 
days  are  passing ;  time  is  receding ;  eternity  is  advancing ;  many,  on 
your  right  hand  and  on  your  left,  have  recently  been  taken  to  their 
long  home.  0,  why  are  you  unconcerned  ?  If  the  stubborn  knee 
has  never  bent  in  prg^er  before,  0  let  it  begin  to  bend  to-night.  If 
the  callous  soul  has  never  uttered  the  exclamation  for  mercy  before. 
0  let  it  plead  to-night.  By  all  the  perfections  of  God,  which  have 
this  evening  been  presented  to  your  view  —  by  all  the  sweet  influences 
of  the  gospel  of  everlasting  peace  —  by  all  the  immensity  of  the  love 
of  God  —  by  all  the  songs  of  angels  —  by  all  the  transports  of  the  re- 
deemed on  the  one  hand,  and  by  the  weeping,  and  the  wailing,  and 
the  gnashing  of  teeth  of  the  damned  on  the  other,  I  entreat  you,  I 
implore  you,  I  charge  you,  that  this  evening  you  begin  to  attend  to 
the  things  which  belong  to  your  peace.  Spirit  of  the  living  God  I 
descend  and  rest  upon  this  congregation.  Spirit  of  grace  and  of  sup- 
plication !  descend  and  rest  upon  this  congregation.  Spirit  of  power, 
and  of  love,  and  of  a  sound  mind,  and  of  holiness,  and  of  peace !  de- 
scend and  rest  upon  this  congregation.  Spirit  of  glory  and  of  God  I 
descend  and  rest  upon -this  congregation.  Oh!  that  now  —  oh!  that 
now  there  may  be  a  shaking  among  the  dry  bones.  Oh !  that  now  — 
oh !  that  now  it  may  be  said  of  many  of  you,  "  Behold,  he  prayeth  ! " 
Oh  .  that  now  —  oh !  that  now  there  may  be  rejoicing  in  the  presence 
of  the  angels  of  God,  over  many  sinnera  that  are  repentmg  here. 
Then  our  meeting  together  will  have  been  for  the  better  and  not  for 
the  worse  ;  and  then,  in  a  brighter  world  of  loveliness  and  of  day,  wo 
shall  strike  together  our  golden  harps  to  the  Savior's  praise,  and  cast 


L4§  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

our  starry  crowns  at  his  feet,  while,  with  the  whole  celestial  universe, 
we  unite  in  the  acclamation,  "  Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  was  slain ! 
worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  was  slain !  " 

Now,  my  friends,  the  engagements  of  this  Sabbath  have  drawn  to  a 
close.  Now  the  shadows  of  the  evening  have  gathered  around  us. 
Novj  we  are  anotherLord's  day  nearer  to  eternity.  How  long  we  may 
be  spared  we  cannot  tell ;  how  many  more  opportunities  we  may  have 
of  hearing  of  the  glad  tidings  of  great  joy  we  cannot  tell ;  how  long 
we  may  live  to  call  upon  the  mercy  of  God,  and  to  present  ourselves 
before  the  throne  of  grace,  we  cannot  tell.  But  as  you  go  out  at  those 
doors  to-night,  and  as  you  return  to  your  respective  places  of  abode, 
let  the  following  inquiry  dwell  upon  your  minds,  and  be  connected  with 
your  prayers :  "  The  friend  or  the  foe  of  the  Savior,  which  am  I  ?  "" 
I  have  heard  to-night  of  the  angelic  ascription,  now  let  me  bring  the 
matter  to  a  test  and  to  a  close.  "  The  friend  or  the  foe  of  the  Savior 
—  which  am  I?  "  All  eternity,  all  heaven,  all  earth,  all  hell,  await 
your  reply.     "  The  friend  or  the  foe  of  Christ  —  which  am  I  ?  " 

Arise,  0  God,  and  plead  thine  own  cause !  arise,  0  God,  and  plead 
thine  own  cause ! 


SERMON    XIL 

A   COMING  LORD. 


BY    REV.    JOSEPH    WOLFF,    V.V., 

A   CONVERTED   JEW. 


"  And  the  angel  said  unto  her,  Fear  not,  Mary  :  for  thou  hast  found  favor  with  God.  And,  befioW, 
thou  shall  conceive  in  thy  womb,  and  bring  forth  a  son,  and  shalt  call  his  name  Jesus.  He  shall  be 
great,  and  shall  be  called  the  Son  of  the  Highest  :  and  tho  I.orJ  God  shall  give  unto  him  the  throne  of 
bis  father  David  :  and  he  shall  reign  over  the  house  of  Jacob  for  ever  ;  and  of  his  kingdom  there  shalS 
be  no  end." — Luke  i.  30 — 33. 

You  perceive,  my  friends,  that  this  is  prophecy.  Therefore,  for 
the  better  understanduig  of  it,  we  must  first  of  all  give  you  the  defini- 
tion of  prophecy.  Prophecy  is  a  prediction  of  an  event,  which  is  still 
to  come  ;  a  prediction  of  history. 

Now  how  must  such  a  prophecy  be  construed,  in  order  to  find  out 
the  real  sense  of  it  ?  We  must  try  to  find  out  the  grammatical  mean- 
ing of  it ;  and  then  we  must  examine  whether  such  a  prophecy  has 
really  been  fulfilled.  This  is  quite  common  sense  ;  and  every  one  of 
you  will  agree  with  me.      Moses  himself  gives  us,  in  Deuteronomy, 


A  COMING  LORD.  149 

this  direction,  hoAV  we  may  know  that  a  prophet  has  spoken.  If  the 
event  he  predicted  has  come  to  pass,  then  we  may  know  that  a  prophet 
has  been  among  vis ;  if  the  event  does  not  come  to  pass,  then  he  has 
spoken  presumptuously  and  rashly. 

Let  us  now  examine  this  prediction ;  which  had  been  given  already 
in  the  twenty-third  of  Jeremiah,  and  seventh  of  Isaiah. 

"  Fear  not,  Mary  ;  for  thou  hast  found  favor  with  God."  And  in 
what  was  this  favor  to  consist  ?  "  And  behold,  thou  shalt  conceive  in 
thy  womb,  and  bring  forth  a  son,  and  shalt  call  his  name  Jesus." 
This  verse  needs  no  interpretation  at  all.  Every  one  knows,  it  is  ad- 
mitted by  all,  by  profane  history,  by  the  Jews,  in  Josephus  and  in 
their  other  writers,  the  most  deadly  foes  of  Christ,  that  Jesus  was 
born,  and  that  the  Virgin  Mary  was  his  mother. 

"  He  shall  be  great."  Every  one  will  admit  this  again  —  will  admit 
that  he  Avas  great.  The  mode  of  establishing  his  rehgion  by  twelve 
fishermen,  proved  that  he  was  great.  His  conduct  on  the  cross  proved 
that  he  was  great ;  he  looked  down  upon  his  enemies  and  prayed  for 
th^.  His  resurrection  proved  that  he  had  some  higher  power  than  a 
mere  creature.  That  he  was  great.  Infidelity  has  witnessed  in  a  most 
remarkable  manner.  I  was  struck  lately  in  reading  a  book  I  brought 
from  Bokhara ;  where  it  is  said  that  Mahomet  has  predicted  that  his 
religion  shall  altogether  pull  down  the  religion  of  the  Nazarene  through- 
out the  East,  and  the  religion  of  the  Koran  be  established.  Now  it  is 
very  remarkable,  that  when  his  mighty  officer  and  general  went  into 
Armenia,  and  tried  to  sweep  away  Christianity  there,  (where  there 
was  a  convent  which  is  still  existing,  as  some  travellers  who  are  here 
well  know,  and  where  the  great  Ignatius  Alnoorane,  "  the  enlighten- 
er,"  had  preached  the  gospel  in  the  second  century,)  he  was  not  able 
to  convert  to  Mahomedanism  one  single  district  of  that  territory.  Con- 
tinually their  exclamation  was  —  "  Christ,  God  and  very  Christ,  God 
of  very  God !  "  Voltaire  also  tried  to  pull  down  Christ ;  his  exclama- 
tion was —  "Down  with  the  infamous;"  has  he  succeeded?  That 
this  church  is  full  now,  is  witness  that  Christ  is  great  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  as  he  was  proved  in  the  seventeenth,  and  in  the  middle  ages, 
when  he  still  had  servants  who  "  worshipped  him  in  spirit  and  in 
truth."  This  has  taken  place,  then ;  it  is  no  more  prophecy;  it  has 
become  history. 

"  He  shall  be  called  the  Son  of  the  Highest."  How  do  you,  mem- 
bers of  the  Church  of  England,  call  him  ?  "  Son  of  the  Highest." 
The  Independents  ?  "  Son  of  the  Highest."  The  Kirk  of  Scotland  ? 
"  Son  of  the  Highest."  I  have  seen  Ncstorians  in  their  own  moun- 
tains, and  I  asked  them  —  How  do  you  call  Christ  ?      Their  answer 


150  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

was  —  "Jesus,  the  Son  of  the  livmg  God;  Jesus,  the  Son  of  the 
Highest."  So  far,  still,  the  text  has  become  history.  But  let  us 
go  on. 

"  And  the  Lord  God  shall  give  unto  him  the  throne  of  his  father 
David."     Has  this  taken  place  ? 

Before  we  give  any  opinion,  let  us  examine  how  he  was  the  son  of 
David.  It  is  wonderful  how  Scripture  explains  Scripture.  In  the 
first  of  the  Romans  we  read,  in  the  fourth  verse,  that  he  was  "  declared 
to  be  the  Son  of  God  with  power,  according  to  the  Spirit ;  "  but  how 
was  he  the  Son  of  David?  Why,  in  the  third  verse  we  read  that  he 
was  "  made  of  the  seed  of  David  "  —  according  to  the  Spirit  ?  no  — 
"according  to  the  flesh."  Then  if  he  was  the  son  of  David  according 
to  the  flesh,  the  throne  of  David  which  he  has  must  also  be  accord- 
ing to  the  flesh.  And  that  he  is  to  sit  upon  the  throne  of  his  father 
David  "  according  to  the  flesh,"  is  decidedly  predicted  also  in  the 
second  chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles :  "  Therefore  being  a 
prophet,"  (speaking  of  David,)  "  and  knowing  that  God  had  sworn 
with  an  oath  to  him,  that  of  the  fruit  of  his  loins,  according  to  the 
flesh,  he  would  raise  up  Christ  to  sit  on  his  throne." 

Here  let  us  examiae  what  is  "  the  throne  of  David."  Now  the 
New  Testament  is  the  inspired  commentary  on  the  Old,  and  let  us  not 
depart  from  it ;  but  let  us  lay  altogether  aside  all  human  opinions, 
whether  of  antiquity  or  of  modern  times.  "  The  throne  of  David  " 
in  the  whole  of  the  books  of  Samuel  and  the  Kings,  and  in  Isaiah  and 
all  the  prophets,  refers  us  to  Palestine,  of  which  Jerusalem  is  the  cap- 
ital. If  this,  after  Christ's  coming,  in  the  dispensation  of  the  New 
Testament,  was  to  be  something  quite  diSerent  —  if  there  was  to  be 
another  "throne  of  David,"  the  New  Testament,  which  is  a  commen- 
tary, would  have  given  us  quite  different  words  for  it.  But  does  it  ? 
No;  you  have  the  same  words — "the  throne  of  David"  in  the  Old 
Testament,  "  the  throne  of  David  "  in  the  New. 

Then,  is  this  prophecy  fulfilled  ?  No  :  it  is  not  yet  fulfilled ;  and 
shall  not  be  fulfilled  until  his  second  coming  in  glory. 

Here  I  give  you  two  axioms,  Avhich  are  carried  through  the  whole 
of  the  Old  and  New  Testament.  Christ  was  anointed  to  the  three- 
fold office  of  jmest,  prophet  and  king.  As  High  Priest,  he  was  an- 
ointed, and  visibly  manifested  ;  he  was  sacrificed  on  the  cross,  and 
passed  visibly  into  heaven.  As  prophet,  he  was  also  anointed  and  vis- 
ibly manifested;  he  spake  as  "never  man  spake.,"  and  he  stood  upon 
the  mountain,  and  multitudes  saw  the  great  proj^het  —  "the  prophet," 
as  he  was  called.  As  king,  he  was  also  anointed,  but  is  not  yet  visi- 
bly manifested.     Just  as  David  his  father,  and  the  type  of  Christ,  was 


A   COMING  LORD.  151 

anointed  by  Samuelj  but  had  not  entered  his  kingly  office  until  Saul 
was  slain  ;  so  Christ,  -who  is  also  anointed  as  kuig,  has  not  yet  entered 
that  kingly  office,  and  shall  not  enter  it  until  the  antitype  of  Saul  — 
Antichrist  —  shall  be  slain. 

This  is  the  drift  of  Christ's  instructions  to  his  disciples  on  this  sub- 
ject. I  know  that  there  are  many  who  do  not  completely  agree  with 
me ;  such  as  Butler,  and  Bishop  jSIaltby,  and  several  bishops  in  our 
time.  There  is  a  general  opinion  current  in  the  Christian  Church, 
that  the  great  fault  of  the  Jews  was,  that  they  expected  a  temporal 
kingdom,  and  Christ  intended  merely  to  establish  a  spiritual  kingdom, 
and  therefore  they  disbelieved.  Now  I  ask,  is  there  one  single  text  in 
the  whole  of  the  Scripture,  which  proves  this  ?  On  the  contrary,  he 
continually  tried  to  prove  to  the  Jews,  and  to  his  disciples,  who  were 
of  the  same  opinion,  that  their  error  consisted,  not  in  expecting  such  a 
kingdom,  but  in  forgetting  that  a  great  event  was  to  intervene.  I 
refer  you  to  the  twenty-fourth  of  Luke.  The  disciples,  after  his  cru- 
cifixion, had  got  quite  discouraged ;  they  said,  "  We  trusted  that  it 
had  been  he  which  should  have  redeemed  Israel," — and  they  (with 
the  rest  of  the  Jews)  understood  by  that  their  being  redeemed  from 
the  captivity  of  the  Romans  ;  to-day  is  the  third  day,  they  said, 
and  we  see  nothing  ;  we  are  disappointed  ;  we  are  still  slaves  of  the 
Romans.  Now  Christ  appears;  and  what  does  he  say  to  them? 
You  have  misunderstood  the  prophets  ?  No :  not  a  word  of  it. 
On  the  contrary,  he  says  —  "  0  fools,  and  slow  of  heart  to  beheve  all 
that  the  prophets  have  spoken !  "  You  believe  only  one  part,  with  re- 
gard to  the  glory ;  you  forget  altogether  the  other  part.  "  0\ight  not 
Chiist  to  have  suffered  these  things,  and  to  enter  into  his  glory  ?  " 

The  same  method  which  Christ  thus  took  to  set  them  right,  was 
pursued  afterwards  by  the  apostles,  as  you  will  see  in  the  third  of  the 
Acts.  "  And  now,  brethren,"  says  the  apostle,  "  I  wot  that  through 
ignorance  ye  did  it,  as  did  also  your  rulers  ;  "  and  in  what  did  consist 
their  ignorance  ?  "  But  those  things  which  God  before  had  showed 
by  the  mouth  of  all  his  prophets  that  Christ  should  suffijr,  he  hath  so 
fulfilled ;  "  he  does  not  say,  that  all  with  regard  to  the  glory  had  been 
fulfilled,  but  only  the  suffering  part.  "  Repent  ye,  therefore,  and  be 
converted,  that  your  sins  may  be  blotted  out,"  (for  there  is  another 
time  to  come,  which  is  also  predicted,)  "  when  the  tunes  of  refreshing 
shall  come  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord ;  and  he  shall  send  Jesus 
Christ,"  (this  is  the  second  time,)  "  which  before  was  preached  unto 
you;  whom  the  heaven  must  receive"  —  for  ever  to  be  there?  no, 
"until  the  times  of  restitution  of  all  things,"  (the  times  of  the  bring- 
ing back  of  all  things  to  their  former  condition,)   "  Avhich  God  hath 


152  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

spoken  by  the  mouth  of  all  his  holy  prophets,"  and  which  has  not  yet 
been  fuljEilled. 

Now  go  to  a  further  question:  how  shall  he  appear,  when  he  is  to 
come  ?  Again  let  Scripture  answer.  I  read  in  the  first  chapter  of  the 
Acts,  when  they  were  on  the  mount  of  Ohves — "And  when  he  had 
spoken  those  things,  while  they  beheld,  he  was  taken  up :  and  a  cloud 
received  him  out  of  their  sight.  And  while  they  looked  steadfastly 
toward  heaven  as  he  went  up,  behold,  two  men  stood  by  them  in  white 
apparel ;  which  also  said,  Ye  men  of  Galilee,  why  stand  ye  gazing  up 
into  heaven  ?  this  same  Jesus,  which  is  taken  up  from  you  into  heaven, 
shall  so  come  in  hke  manner  as  ye  have  seen  him  go  into  heaven. 
Then  returned  they  unto  Jerusalem  from  the  mount  called  Olivet." 
He  shall  so  come  "  in  like  manner :  "  "in  the  self-same  manner  "  — 
is  the  idea  conveyed  in  the  Greek  text.  So  then,  he  was  conveyed  to 
heaven  by  a  cloud.  How  shall  he  come  again  ?  I  refer  you  to  the 
seventh  chapter  of  Daniel.  "  I  saw  in  the  night  visions,  and  behold, 
One  like  the  Son  of  man  came  with  the  clouds  of  heaven ; "  in  the 
selfsame  manner  as  he  went  up. 

Where  did  he  stand  when  he  went  up  ?  On  "  the  mount  called 
Olivet."  Where  shall  he  stand  when  he  shall  come  again  in  glory  ? 
I  refer  you  to  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  Zechariah.  "  I  will  gather 
all  nations  against  Jerusalem  to  battle.  Then  shall  the  Lord  go  forth, 
and  fight  against  those  nations,  as  when  he  fought  in  the  day  of  battle. 
And  his  feet  shall  stand  in  that  day  upon  the  mount  of  Olives  "  —  the 
real  mount  of  Olives,  not  a  spiritual  one,  for  it  is  added —  "  which  is 
before  Jerusalem  on  the  east ;  "  exactly  as  we  find  it  in  the  present 
day,  and  the  self-same  spot  where  he  stood  when  he  went  up. 

Those  who  deny  the  personal  reign  of  Christ,  (which  I  believe,)  tell 
us  —  Yes,  he  will  come,  he  will  appear  visibly,  but  it  will  be  on  the 
day  of  judgment.     Then  I  ask,  what  do  you  understand  by  "  the  day 
of  judgment  ?  "     The  idea  generally  is,  that  this  earth  shall  be  alto- 
gether annihilated,  and  the  saints  shall   be   taken  away  to  another 
place,  which  is  not  at  all  defined.     Now  let  me  tell  you,  if  this  is  spir- 
ituality, the  Lamas  of  Thibet  believe  the  same.      But  to  Scripture  we 
must  go  continually,  like  Luther,  who  said,  "  Hear  Scripture  —  Scrip- 
^-^^^^fiJ^ure  ;  "  and  by  this  Word  we  must  sift  every  thing.      And  where  is 
y'  '^      it  said  that  this  world  shall  be  annihilated  ?     There  is  not  one  single 
'•^^text  to  that  effect,  in  the  whole  of  Scripture.      That  it  shall  be  pm-i- 
fied  by  fire,  as  it  was  purified  by  water,  is  true  ;  but  it  was  not  anni- 
hilated by  water —  only  purified.      So  it  shall  be,  says  St.  Peter,  by 
fire. 

That  Christ  is  to  come  for  the  purpose  of  building  up  Jerusalem,  is 


A   COMING    LORD.  153 

clearly  stated  in  the  hundred  and  second  psalm ;  "  "When  the  Lord 
shall  build  up  Zion,  he  shall  appear  "  (in  the  Hebrew,  "  he  shall  be 
seen  visibly  ")  "  in  his  glory  "  —  as  his  glory  was  frequently  seen  by 
the  whole  nation  upon  Horeb  and  mount  Sinia.  That  he  shall  come 
to  establish  a  kingdom  here  on  earth,  is  clearly  said  in  the  seventh 
chapter  of  Daniel :  "  I  saw  in  the  night  visions,  and  behold,  he  came 
with  the  clouds  of  heaven,  and  there  was  given  him  dominion  and  glo- 
ry and  a  kingdom,  that  all  people,  nations  and  languages  should  serve 
him."  That  this  is  not  to  be  in  what  we  call  heaven,  but  that  his  saints 
at  that  time  shall  reign  with  him  under  the  sky,  we  are  told  in  the  twen- 
ty-seventh verse  of  that  chapter :  "  The  kingdom  and  dominion,  and 
the  greatness  of  the  kingdom  under  the  whole  heaven,  shall  be  given 
to  the  people  of  the  saints  of  the  Most  High."  And  afterwards,  in 
the  Revelation,  when  John,  caught  up  in  spirit  into  heaven,  hears  the 
song  of  the  glorified  saints,  which  tells  him  what  their  final  destiny 
shall  be,  what  does  he  hear  ?  I  read  in  the  fifth  chapter  —  "And 
they  sung  a  new  song,  saying,  Thou  art  worthy  to  take  the  book,  and 
to  open  the  seals  thereof:  for  thou  wast  slain,  and  hast  redeemed  us 
to  God  by  thy  blood  out  of  every  kindred,  and  tongue,  and  people, 
and  nation ;  and  hast  made  us  unto  God  kings  and  priests :  and  we 
shall  re'.gn  on  the  earth."  "  On  the  earth :  "  you  cannot  make  of  this 
earth  heaven,  and  of  heaven  earth. 

At  his  first  coming  Christ  distinctly  said  to  Pilate,  "  Now  is  my 
kingdom  not  from  hence,"  Shall  it  never  be  ?  Again,  go  to  the  Rev- 
elation —  the  eleventh  chapter :  "  And  the  seventh  angel  sounded  ; 
and  there  were  great  voices  in  heaven,  saying,  The  kingdoms  of  this 
world  "  (which  were  not  his  at  his  first  coming,)  "  are  become  the 
kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ,  and  he  shall  reign  for  ever 
and  ever." 

In  what  state  shall  the  earth  be  at  that  time  ?  Filled  with  sorrow  ? 
1^0 :  it  shall  be  a  beautiful  earth.  Let  me  read  to  you  from  the  sev- 
enty-second psalm.  "  He  shall  come  down  like  rain  upon  the  mown 
grass  ;  as  showers  that  water  the  earth.  In  his  days  "  (it  shall  not 
be  as  at  present,  when  the  righteous  are  often  oppressed,  and  the  un- 
righteous flourish,  but)  "  the  righteous  shall  flourish,  and  abundance 
of  peace  so  long  as  the  moon  endureth.  He  shall  have  dominion  also 
from  sea  to  sea,"  (there  is  no  sea  in  heaven,)  "  and  from  the  river 
unto  the  ends  of  tlie  earth.  They  that  dwell  in  the  wilderness  shall 
bow  before  him :  "  I  have  too  much  experienced  that  it  is  not  so  now, 
but  it  is  not  proper  in  the  pulpit  to  speak  of  myself ;  "  God  and  noth- 
ing but  God,  and  Mahomed  the  ambassador  of  God,"  is  their  outcry, 
and  the  defenceless  traveller  is  frequently  put  to  death.      Shall  it  be 


154  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

SO  then  ?  "  They  that  dwell  in  the  mldemess  shall  bow  before  him  ; 
and  his  enemies  shall  lick  the  dust.  Yea,  all  kings  shall  fall  down 
before  him :  all  nations  shall  serve  him." 

But  it  would  detain  you  too  long  to  enter  into  the  predictions  of  that 
time,  when  "  the  earth  shall  be  filled  with  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord, 
as  the  waters  cover  the  Sea."  I  must  conclude  with  that  which  shall 
be  the  song  of  the  redeemed  creation  here  on  earth.  You  will  find  it 
in  the  ninety-eighth  psalm.  "  Oh  !  sing  unto  the  Lord  a  new  song ; 
for  he  hath  done  marvellous  things ;  his  right  hand,  and  his  holy  arm, 
hath  gotten  him  the  victory.  The  Lord  hath  made  known  his  salva- 
tion :  his  righteousness  hath  he  openly  showed  in  the  sight  of  the  hear 
then.  He  hath  remembered  his  mercy  and  his  truth  toward  the  house 
of  Israel ;  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  have  seen  the  salvation  of  our 
God.  Make  a  joyful  noise  unto  the  Lord,  all  the  earth ;  make  a  loud 
noise,  and  rejoice,  and  sing  praise." 

Until  that  time  come  Ave  have  to  watch  and  to  pray.  "  Come,  Lord 
Jesus;  come  quickly." 

At  that  time,  the  great  test  of  our  discipleship  shall  be,  as  Christ 
says  in  the  twenty-fifth  chapter  of  Matthew,  acts  of  benevolence  — 
acts  of  philanthropy.  And  how  can  you  prove  that  spirit  better  than 
by  promoting  those  societies  which  try  to  proclaim  Christ  our  Lord, 
and  the  great  doctrine  of  repentance  and  forgiveness  of  sins  in  him, 
and  his  final  coming  in  glory  ?  There  are  two  societies  established, 
for  which  a  collection  will  be  made — the  one  for  the  purpose  of  pro- 
moting Christian  knowledge,  the  knowledge  of  that  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
who  "  is  great,"  and  has  proved  through  ages  that  he  is  great ;  and 
the  other,  the  society  for  providing  additional  curates.  I  am  sure 
you  will  contribute  towards  the  support  of  these  societies. 

I  am  very  glad  to  have  seen  you  so  attentive ;  for  the  coming  of 
our  Lord  in  glory  is  a  solemn  subject.  But  how  much  more  shall  you 
be  solemnised,  when  you  shall  one  day  be  stopped  in  your  worldly  busi- 
ness, and  look  out  and  hear  the  shout  of  the  angels,  and  the  sound  of 
the  trumpet  —  "  Behold,  he  cometh !  " 

"  Lo  !  he  comes,  with  clouds  descending, 
Once  for  favored  sinners  slain  ; 
Thousand,  thousand  saints  attending, 
Swell  the  triumph  of  his  train. 
Hallelujah  !  see  the  Son  of  God  appear." 


EARLY  DEDICATION  TO   GOD.  165 

SEEMON  XIII. 

THE  IMPORTANCE   OF   EARLY   DEDICATION  TO    GOD. 
BY    REV.    D.    E.    FORD. 

"  Wilt  tliou  uot  from  this  time  cry  unto  me,  My  Father,  thou  art  the  guide  of  my  youth." — Jer  iii.  4. 

The  verse  which  I  have  now  read  in  your  hearing  is  part  of  the 
parable  which  the  prophet  Jeremiah  set  before  Israel  to  show  their 
transgressions  and  their  sins,  and  to  justify  the  ways  of  God  to  man  in 
sending  upon  the  rebellious  nation  the  afflictions  and  the  judgments 
which  were  about  to  befall  them  The  rebellious  children,  however,  of 
that  age,  have  long  since  gone  to  their  last  account :  no  divine  remon- 
strances, no  invitations  of  mercy,  now  sound  in  their  ears  ;  "  the  sum- 
mer is  ended,  the  harvest  is  past,  and  they  are  not  saved."  But,  my 
beloved  young  friends,  God  is  waiting  for  you ;  is  "  waiting  to  be  grar 
cious  ;  "  has  not  "  in  anger  shut  up  his  tender  mercies ;  "  and  there  is 
repeated  in  your  hearing  the  gracious  invitation  which  sounded  in  the 
ears  of  lost  sinners  in  by-gone  ages.  "  Wilt  thou  not  from  this  time 
cry  unto  me.  My  Father,  thou  art  the  guide  of  my  youth  ?  "  The 
God  of  Israel  is  gracious  as  ever.  Ages  have  not  worn  out  his  for- 
bearance, have  not  exhausted  his  compassion,  have  not  diminished  his 
resources.  There  is  the  same  tenderness  in  infinite  mercy ;  there  is 
the  same  condescension  in  infinite  love.  Nay,  brethren,  more  plainly 
is  his  tenderness  seen  now  than  then ;  more  strikingly  is  his  compas- 
sion seen  now  than  then ;  for  "  God,  who  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers 
manners  spake  unto  the  fathers  by  the  prophets,  hath  in  these  last 
days  spoken  unto  us  by  his  Son,  whom  he  hath  appointed  heir  of  all 
things,  by  whom  also  he  made  the  worlds."  And  he  is  speaking  to 
you.  It  is  the  language  of  him  who  agonized  upon  the  cross ;  it  is 
the  language  of  him  who  came  down  from  heaven  to  renew  and  sanc- 
tify the  human  heart —  "  Wilt  thou  not,  from  this  time,  cry  unto  me, 
My  Father,  thou  art  the  guide  of  my  youth  ?  " 

The  Lord  grant  us  his  special  help  and  blensing,  this  evening,  while 
I  direct  your  attention,  first,  to  the  assumption,  and  then  to  the  invita- 
tion of  the  text. 

I.  First,  to  the  assumption ;  namely,  that  the  individual  addressed 
has  not  said  it.  Look  at  the  text.  Is  it  not  assumed  that  the  indi- 
vidual to  whom  it  is  addressed,  has  never  said,  "  My  Father,  Thou  art 


156  THE   EXGLISn   PULPIT. 

the  guide  of  my  youth  ?"  "  Wilt  thou  not  from  this  time  "  do  it  ? — 
"  Wilt  thou  not,  from  this  time,  cry  unto  me,  My  Father,  thou  art  the 
guide  of  my  youth  ? "  The  assumption,  then,  is,  that  the  person  is  in 
a  state  of  unregeneracy,  in  a  state  of  unpardoned  guilt ;  has  never 
given  his  heart  to  God,  in  a  covenant  which  shall  not  be  broken. 

My  hearers,  multitudes  are  in  this  awful  condition.  While  God  is 
inviting  and  commanding  and  exhorting  by  his  Word,  by  his  Spirit,  and 
by  his  ministei's,  they  are  refusing  to  hsten ;  they  are  refusing  to  obey  ; 
they  "  will  not  hearken  to  the  voice  of  the  charmer,  charm  he  never  so 
wisely."  And  in  that  condition  there  are  some  —  I  fear  that  in  that 
condition  there  are  many —  of  you.  Up  to  this  very  hour,  every  in- 
vitation that  you  have  heard  has  been  in  vain ;  up  to  this  very  hour, 
every  command  of  God  to  which  you  have  listened,  has  been  in  vain  ; 
up  to  this  very  hour,  every  promise  which  has  invited  your  attention, 
has  been  in  vain  ;  you  have  "  loved  your  idols,  and  after  them  you 
would  go."  Could  I  converse  with  you  alone,  as  it  has  often  been  my 
happiness  to  converse  with  the  young,  I  doubt  not  that  many  a  young 
heart  here  would  confess  the  awful  fact,  that  the  controversy  between 
the  soul  and  God  is  yet  unsettled.  Oh !  how  often  have  my  ears  and 
my  heart  been  pained  by  the  confessions,  even  of  the  children  of  many 
prayers,  that  they  have  not  given  their  hearts  to  God  !  that  they  know 
that  there  is  an  unsettled  controversy  between  Jehovah  and  themselves, 
and  yet  they  can  eat  and  drink  and  sleep,  as  though  there  were  nothing 
the  matter,  as  though  there  were  nothing  amiss  !  The  truth  is,  that 
they  disbelieve  the  facts  of  the  gospel,  or  regard  them  with  such  indif- 
ference, or  such  unbelief,  as  almost  to  amount  to  infidelity.  Ah  !  my 
dear  young  friends,  remember  that  the  theory  of  the  gospel  will  never 
save  the  soul ;  remember,  that  a  mere  admission  that  Christ  is  the  Son 
of  God  in  so  many  words,  will  never  secure  your  salvation,  if  you  are 
withholding  from  him  your  heart.  What  is  the  difierence  between  you 
and  the  avowed  infidel,  excepting  that  the  latter  is  consistent  in  his 
wickedness,  and  you  are  not  so  ?  To  acknowledge  him  in  words,  but 
to  deny  him  by  deeds  ;  to  say  that  he  is  your  Father,  while  you  are  not 
doing  the  things  which  he  commands  —  is  but  to  add  the  guilt  of  in- 
consistency to  all  your  other  crimes.  Now  is  it  not  an  awful  fact,  that 
there  are  many  of  you  (I  wish  you  not  to  hear  for  your  young  com- 
panions, but  every  one  to  hear  for  himself)  — is  it  not  a  fearful  fact, 
that  many  of  you  have  never  yet  committed  one  act  of  devoted  conse- 
cration to  the  ser\ace  of  the  Lord  God  Almighty  ?  You  have  never 
gone  to  the  throne  of  grace,  and  said,  "  Lord,  here  is  my  heart ;  take 
it,  and  make  it  thine  own  for  ever  ;  "  you  have  never  said  there, — 
"other  lords  have  had  dominion  over  me,  but  by  thee  only  will  I  make 


EAKLY   DEDICATION   TO   GOD.  157 

mention  of  thy  name."  On  the  other  hand,  your  conduct,  if  not  your 
language,  has  been  that  of  the  proud  monarch  of  Egyi^t — "  "Who  is 
the  Lord,  that  I  should  obey  his  voice  ?  "  Now,  my  dear  young 
friends,  if  you  for  one  moment  suspect  that  this  is  the  fearful  truth,  I 
beseech  you  to  think  of  nothing  else  until  you  have  settled  this  matter, 
and  decided  whether  God  is  worthy  of  your  love.  If  he  be,  give  him 
your  heart ;  and  do  it  at  once.  If  he  be  not,  why  should  you  trouble 
yourselves  with  religion  any  more  ?  "  Choose  ye  this  day  whom  ye 
will  serve  ;  but  if  the  Lord  be  God,  serve  him."  Oh  !  it  is  a  melan- 
choly sight  to  see  the  young  rising  around  us  with  no  notions  of  piety 
but  those  of  restraint,  and  melancholy,  and  dreariness  ;  they  soon  thi'ow 
off  the  restraints  of  early  instruction,  and  they  break  loose  into  all 
manner  of  wickedness.  And  why  ?  Because  their  hearts  are  un- 
changed. Why  ?  Because  their  souls  are  unredeemed,  and  they 
have  never  learnt  by  practical  experience  that  "  the  ways  of  wisdom 
are  ways  of  pleasantness  "  and  that  "  all  her  paths  are  peace."  But 
oh  !  let  us  bring  the  young  to  Christ ;  let  his  love  be  shed  abroad  in 
then-  souls,  and  then  his  voice  will  have  music  for  their  ears,  which 
shall  for  ever  incapacitate  them  to  listen  to  the  syren  song  of  pleasure  ; 
and  then  his  fellowship  shall  have  charms  for  their  understandings  and 
for  their  hearts,  such  as  shall  give  them  a  perpetual  and  increasing  dis- 
rehsh  for  all  worldly  and  improper  associations. 

In  the  neglect  of  the  claims  of  God  there  is  an  amount  of  daring, 
a  degi-ee  of  moral  madness,  of  which  we  can  hardly  form  a  concep- 
tion ;  especially  in  the  case  of  the  child  of  msmy  prayers,  who  has  been 
nurtured  in  the  lap  of  piety,  who  has  been  led  to  the  footstool  of  mercy 
by  the  hand  of  maternal  affection,  and  has  been  taught  from  a  moth- 
er's lips  to  lisp  the  name  of  Jesus.  I  am  addressing  many  such ;  and 
their  advantages  are  beyond  all  price.  It  is  better  to  be  the  child  of 
many  prayers,  than  to  be  the  heir  of  a  dukedom  ;  it  is  better  to  be  the 
child  of  many  prayers,  than  to  draw  one's  descent  from  a  line  of  kings 
and  princes.  See  the  superior  advantages  with  which  such  a  person 
is  endued  throughout  all  his  future  life.  Thal^oung  man  who  has  been 
"  trained  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord,"  can  never 
pretend  that  religion  is  priestcraft,  and  that  godliness  is  superstition. 
Many  think  so ;  and  they  really  fancy  that  they  are  men  of  sense 
while  they  think  so.  The  fact  is,  that  this  arises  from  their  ignorance ; 
they  have  never  seen  religion  exhibited  in  its  proper  light ;  and  as  Je- 
sus said  for  his  murderers  on  the  cross,  "  Father,  forgive  them,  for 
they  know  not  what  they  do,"  so  we  say,  concerning  many  of  the 
proud  despisers  and  blasphemers  of  the  Son  of  God.  But  the  child 
of  many  prayers  can  never  be  placed  in  such  circumstances  as  theirs. 


158  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

He  has  seen  that  religion  sweetens  the  cup  of  human  sorrow ;  he  has 
seen  that  religion  adds  refinement  to  all  the  pleasures  of  which  social 
life  is  capable :  he  knows,  or  ought  to  know,  that  "  the  ways  of  wis- 
dom are  pleasantness,  and  that  all  her  paths  are  peace  ; "  and  he  is 
left  without  excuse,  should  he  neglect  the  great  salvation. 

Here,  however,  I  would  carefully  guard  against  mistake.  Let  no 
one  suppose  that  I  am  framing  excuses  for  those  who  are  not  the  chil- 
dren of  many  prayers  ;  let  no  one  go  away  from  the  sanctuary  to-night, 
and  say,  "  I  feel  that  the  warning  did  not  apply  to  me,  because  I  have 
had  none  of  those  advantages  of  which  the  preacher  spoke."  Remem- 
ber, whatever  may  have  been  your  birth  or  your  parentage,  you  are  an 
immortal  being.  Remember,  whoever  may  have  been  your  father  or 
mother,  you  have  a  soul  to  be  saved  or  lost.  Remember,  that  you 
must  give  an  account  of  yourself  unto  God ;  and  it  will  be  but  a  poor 
solace  in  hell  to  find  that  the  mother  who  bare  you,  and  the  father 
who  begat  you,  are  companions  in  your  misery,  aiding  to  increase  the 
bitterness  of  your  doom  throughout  eternity.  Remember,  whatever 
may  have  been  your  disadvantages,  Christ  is  now  setting  before  you 
the  light  of  life,  that  God  is  now  setting  before  you  the  gracious  invi- 
tations of  his  love ;  and  that  whatever  may  have  been  your  neglect  of 
the  great  salvation,  either  from  want  of  opportunity  or  from  disincli- 
iiation,  still  "  now  is  the  accepted  time,  now  is  the  day  of  salvation." 
In  a  word,  let  the  unconverted  youth,  of  whatever  class,  pause  ;  let 
him  look  at  his  standing.  He  is  on  the  brink  of  eternity,  on  the  brink 
of  eternity  without  God  and  without  hope  :  it  is  but  another  step,  and 
he  may  be  in  ruin,  in  everlasting  ruin,  in  remediless  woe. 

I  once  saw  a  profligate  young  man  expire.  He  had  been  the  child 
of  many  prayers,  and  he  had  wasted  his  father's  substance  in  riotous 
living,  and  he  was  brought  home  to  die.  I  visited  him  on  the  bed  of 
death.  He  looked  at  me  with  anguish  which  I  cannot  describe,  and 
said,  "  Why  should  you  come  to  torment  me  " —  I  think  he  gasped  as 
well  —  "  before  the  time  ?  "  I  said,  "My  young  friend,  I  am  not 
come  to  torment  you ;  I  am  come  to  tell  you  that  there  is  mercy  in  God 
even  at  the  last  hour."  "  No  mercy  for  me,"  he  said ;  "  I  have  sinned 
through  all,  I  have  neglected  all,  I  have  despised  all."  He  was  ex- 
hausted when  he  had  made  this  reply.  I  endeavored  to  say  a  few 
words  more,  directing  him  to  "  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the 
sins  of  the  world ;  "  but  he  said,  "  I  cannot  hear  you,  I  cannot  hear 
you  ;  I  am  dying,  and  I  am  damned."  He  fetched  the  most  hideous 
groan  I  ever  heard  in  my  life  ;  his  jaw  fell,  his  eye  was  fixed,  his  spirit 
was  gone  to  take  its  stand  at  the  judgment  seat.  I  shall  never  forget 
that  scene  to  my  dying  day.     Aud  oh  !  perhaps  there  is  some  young 


EARLY    DEDICATION   TO    GOD.  159 

man  here  to-niglit,  who  is  running  through  precisely  the  same  course, 
and  whose  dying  confession  will  be  of  the  same  order  —  "I  am  dying, 
and  I  am  damned." 

Did  time  allow,  I  might  occupy  it  to  a  considerable  extent  by  bring- 
ing before  you  those  varieties  of  character  which  are  presented  to  our 
view  by  the  unconverted  youth  around  us.  There  are  some  who  seem 
to  lack  but  one  thing ;  and  that,  the  one  thing  needful.  There  are 
others,  who  arc  impatient  of  parental  restraint,  and  anxious  to  forget 
their  own  responsibility  in  the  gaieties  of  life  and  in  the  follies  of  sin- 
ful pleasure.  But  I  stay  not  to  classify  these  young  persons ;  for  I 
conceive  that  the  task  after  all  is  needless.  "  Broad  is  the  way  that 
leadeth  to  destruction,  and  many  there  be  that  go  in  thereat."  You 
may  find  variations  of  character  and  of  creed  almost  to  mfinity.  But 
no  matter  what  those  variations  may  be,  how  near  they  come  to  the 
gate  of  life,  or  how  far  from  that  gate  they  may  be  found,  provided 
they  will  not  enter  there.  Remember,  that  if  "  one  thing  be  lacking," 
tliat  one  thing  is  fatal ;  remember  that  "  he  who  offends  in  one  point  is 
guilty  of  all."  I  wish  most  distinctly  to  impress  upon  the  minds  of 
all  the  unconverted  youth  before  me,  that  they  are  involved  in  one  com- 
mon ruin  ;  that  if  they  have  not  "  fled  for  refuge  to  the  hope  set  before 
them  in  the  gospel,"  there  "  remaineth  no  more  sacrifice  for  sin,  but  a 
certain  fearful  looking  for  of  judgment  and  fiery  indignation,  which 
shall  devour  the  adversaries."  There  may  be,  and  there  undoubtedly 
will  be,  degrees  in  future  punishment ;  for  "  where  much  is  given,  much 
will  be  required."  But  all  must  perish  in  their  sins,  who  have  not 
come  to  Jesus  that  they  may  have  life.  Take  the  loveliest  specimen 
of  unsanctified  humanity  ;  you  may  admire  it  and  praise  it  as  youvrill, 
but  that  loveliest  specimen  of  unsanctified  humanity  is  doomed  to  per- 
ish, apart  from  the  blood  of  sprinkling.  Now  does  any  young  friend 
here  say,  "  That  is  meant  for  me  ? "  It  is ;  I  wish  it  so  to  be  under- 
stood. You  are  trifling  away  your  privileges,  you  are  spurning  the 
offers  of  grace  and  mercy  through  the  crucified  Savior ;  and  I  pray 
God  that  you  may  listen  to  this  warning,  and  that  it  may  not  be  in  vain. 

II.  In  the  second  place,  then,  I  proceed  to  direct  your  attention  to 
the  invitation  of  the  text.  "  Wilt  thou  not  from  this  time  cry  unto  me. 
My  Father,  thou  art  the  guide  of  my  youth  ?  "  Will  you  not  say  it 
now,  supposing  you  have  never  said  it  ?  Will  you  not  say  it  from  this 
time,  supposing  that  the  whole  of  your  life  has  previously  been  lost  ? 
The  object  of  this  discourse  is  to  persuade  you  to  say  it  —  the  object 
of  this  discourse  is  to  prevail  upon  you  to  say  it ;  and  to  say  it,  not  as 
a  matter  of  course,  not  as  the  result  of  mere  transient  excitement,  but 


160  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

to  say  it  as  the  result  of  a  stern  and  steadfast  resolve  tliat,  whatever 
others  may  do,  you  will  henceforth  serve  the  Lord  God  of  Israel. 

I  shall  now  proceed,  in  his  faith  and  fear,  to  set  before  you  some 
powerful  reasons,  why  from  this  time  you  should  say,  he  is  "  the  guide 
of  your  youth." 

1.  My  first  reason  shall  be  drawn  from  the  claims  of  him  who  asks 
it.  It  is  the  Almighty  God.  He  is  the  speaker  who  invites  your  con- 
fidence and  demands  your  love  ;  it  is  he  who  says  in  my  text,  "  Wilt 
thou  not  from  this  time  cry  unto  me.  My  Father,  thou  art  the  guide  of 
my  youth  ?  "  He  has  said  it  again  and  again,  and  you  have  neglected 
the  invitation.  Let  me  ask  you,  does  he  deserve  such  treatment  at 
your  hands  ?  Think  of  his  claims,  and  then  ask  your  conscience 
whether  he  does.  Is  it  fitting  that  you  should  thus  treat  the  Almighty 
God,  your  Creator  —  that  you  should  thus  treat  him  who  loved  the 
world,  and  "  so  loved  it  as  to  give  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whoso- 
ever belie veth  in  him  might  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life  ?  " — 
Is  it  meet  that  you  should  thus  treat  him,  who  "  desires  not  the  death 
of  a  sinner,  but  rather  that  he  may  turn  from  his  wickedness  and  live  ?  " 
Is  it  meet  that  you  should  thus  treat  him,  who  "  willeth  all  men  to  be 
saved,  and  to  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  ?  "  You  have  no 
right  to  plead  his  designs  or  decrees,  as  a  reason  for  your  ignorance 
and  guilt.  God  "  will  have  all  men  to  be  saved  ;  "  he  commands  you 
to  submit  to  his  authority ;  he  invites  you  to  venture  upon  his  love  ;  he 
bids  you  welcome  to  his  throne  ;  and  he  says  "  Wilt  thou  not  from  this 
time  cry  unto  me.  My  Father,  thou  art  the  guide  of  my  youth  ?  "  Or, 
if  you  regard  the  author  of  my  text  as  the  Savior  of  the  world,  does 
not  he  deserve  better  treatment  at  your  hands  ?  He  who  died  for 
your  redemption  ;  he,  who  waits  upon  his  glorious  throne  that  he  may 
"  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul,  and  be  satisfied ;"  he  who  will  have  you 
to  participate  in  the  fulness  of  his  grace,  and  to  submit  to  his  authori- 
ty, and  to  welcome  his  love  ;  does  he  not  deserve  your  confidence  ?  — 
does  he  not  deserve  your  devout  affection  ?  and  will  you  withhold  from 
him  the  spontaneous  tribute  of  your  praise  ?  Or,  if  you  regard  the 
invitation  of  the  text  as  coming  from  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  ;  it  is  he 
that  strives  with  your  sins,  it  is  he  that  remonstrates  with  your  per- 
verseness,  it  is  he  that  would  overcome  your  unbelief;  it  is  he  that  sets 
before  you  the  path  of  life,  that  asks  you  to  walk  in  it.  Does  he  not 
deserve  better  treatment  at  your  hands  ?  I  call  upon  you,  then,  in 
the  name  of  the  everlasting  Father;.  I  call  upon  you,  in  the  name  of 
him  who  died  for  the  world's  redemption ;  I  call  upon  you,  in  the  name 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Sanctifier  — ■  no  longer  to  persist  in  this  contro- 
versy with  God,  but  to  yield  your  heart  to  his  service,  and  to  do  it  now. 


EARLY   DEDICATION   TO    GOD.  161 

2.  As  another  reason,  I  would  set  before  you  the  dangers  of  delay. 
Remember  that  your  soul  is  m  peril  all  the  while  you  are  hesitating. 
Remember,  too,  that  all  additional  delay  makes  the  matter  worse*.  You 
feel  it  diiEcult  to  turn  to  Jesus  now ;  you  will  find  it  more  difficult  to- 
morrow, more  difficult  the  day  following,  and  so  on  to  the  end  of  life. 
Theg^e  is  a  hardening  tendency  in  transgression  ;  there  is  a  downward 
progress  in  sin,  which  hardens  the  heart,  defiles  the  soul,  perverts  the 
judgment,  and,  humanly  speaking,  renders  salvation  impossible.  It  is 
the  merest,  and,  at  the  same  time,  the  most  fearful  delusion  of  Satan, 
that  leads  many  a  young  person  to  conclude  that  he  will  have  a  more 
favorable  season  than  the  present  for  giving  himself  to  Christ.  Many 
pretend  to  be  waiting  for  God,  while  God  is  all  the  while  waiting  for 
them.  I  have  often  told  such,  that  in  plain  matter  of  fact  they  are 
not  waiting  God's  time,  but  they  are  waiting  the  devil's  time.  God 
says,  "  Noiv  is  the  accepted  time,  wow  is  the  day  of  salvation."  Sa- 
tan says,  "  To-morrow,  or  the  day  following,  will  be  the  accepted  time." 
"  Go  thy  way  for  this  time,"  replies  the  sinner,  "  when  I  have  a  con- 
venient season  I  will  send  for  thee."  I  remember  an  incident  which 
may  illustrate  and  impress  upon  the  memory  of  the  young  the  danger  of 
delays  in  religion.  You  have  all  heard  of  the  samphire  gatherer,  whose 
deadly  trade  lies  on  the  brink  of  ruin.  An  instance  some  years  ago  occur- 
red in  the  neighborhood  in  which  I  dwelt,  in  which  a  man's  life  was  placed 
in  the  most  imminent  danger  whilst  he  was  engaged  in  that  dangerous 
occupation.  It  is  customary,  and  in  fact  it  is  the  only  way  of  pursu- 
ing that  perilous  trade  to  advantage,  for  the  man  who  follows  it  as  his 
livelihood,  to  fasten  a  rope  round  his  waist,  which  rope  is  fastened  to  a 
crow-bar  that  is  well  secured  in  the  ground,  and  taking  the  other  end 
of  the  rope  to  lower  himself  over  the  cliffs,  perhaps  from  four  to  six 
hundred  feet  in  height,  swinging  himself  by  his  own  exertions,  so  as  to 
catch  the  various  ledges  of  rock  where  the  samphire  grows.  A  man 
was  one  day  pursuing,  according  to  his  custom,  this  dangerous  occupa- 
tion, when,  with  great  difficulty,  he  contrived  to  swing  himself  on  one 
of  the  ledges  of  rock  ;  and  in  the  exertion  of  grasping  the  rock,  he  let 
go  the  rope  by  which  he  was  suspended.  You  see  at  once  the  immi- 
nent danger  in  which  he  was  placed.  There  was  the  yawning  gulph 
beneath ;  not  a  human  being  could  come  to  his  rescue  from  above,  for 
no  one  could  tell  from  what  part  of  the  cliff  he  had  descended ;  his 
only  chance  of  escape  was  to  gain  the  rope,  of  which  he  had  quitted 
his  hold.  That  rope  was  of  immense  length,  swinging  from  the  cliff 
above,  high  in  the  air,  coming  toward  him,  moving  further  off,  coming 
toward  him  again.  The  thought  struck  him  that  at  every  motion  of 
the  rope  he  would  be  left  further  off:  he  knew,  that  were  it  in  a  per- 
il 


162  THE    ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

peudicular  line  with  the  crow-bar  to  which  it  was  affixed,  it  would  be 
altogether  beyond  his  reach,  and  that  therefore,  should  he  remain  where 
he  was,'  escape  would  be  impossible.  The  only  possible  method  of  sav- 
ing his  life  was  to  make  a  desperate  aim  at  the  rope  when  it  came  the 
nearest  to  him.  Accordingly,  the  next  time  it  came  towards  him  he 
made  a  desperate  plunge,  and  threw  himself  off  at  the  height  of  four 
hundred  feet,  and  providentially  grasped  the  rope  and  was  saved. — 
My  young  friends,  I  ask  you  to  make  that  plunge  now.  I  ask  you, 
now,  while  God's  salvation  is  coming  nigh,  to  grasp  the  offers  of  mer- 
cy. I  ask  you  now  to  close  with  God,  to  "  lay  hold  of  the  hope  that 
is  set  before  you  in  the  gospel."  You  may  do  it  —  it  is  coming  to- 
wards you  —  welcome  it  —  clasp  it  —  hold  it  fast,  and  you  will  be 
saved  for  ever. 

3.  And  then,  in  the  third  place,  I  would  direct  your  attention  to  the 
final  consequences  of  refusal.  "  Neither  is  there  salvation  in  any  oth- 
er ;  for  there  is  none  other  name  under  heaven  given  amongst  men, 
whereby  we  must  be  saved."  Religion  is  not  a  choice  between  this 
system  and  that  system  —  between  this  savior  and  that  savior ;  but  it 
is  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  or  everlasting  death  —  salvation  in  God's 
way,  or  everlasting  destruction  from  the  presence  of  the  Lord  and  from 
the  glory  of  his  power  ;  and  the  final  consequences  of  refusal  are  dura- 
ble as  eternity.  God  has  decreed,  that  that  which  a  man  sows  he  also 
shall  reap;  and  that  he  who  "sows  to  the  flesh,  shall  of  the  flesh  reap 
corruption."  Oh  !  what  a  fearful  harvest  is  that  which  the  lost  soul 
will  infallibly  reap  in  hell !  —  and  that  harvest  shall  still  be  "  bringing 
forth  fruit  unto  death ;"  so  that  through  interminable  ages  the  woe  of  the 
lost  shall  only  be  begun.  And  all  this  for  rejecting  —  what  ?  Not  the 
service  of  a  tyrant,  but  of  the  ever-living  God.  All  this  for  rejecting 
—  what  ?  Not  the  unreasonable  demands  of  one  who  hates  our  spe- 
cies, and  scatters  misery  and  death  through  his  vast  dominion,  but  of 
one  who  loves  sinners  ;  and  so  loveth  them,  as  to  give  his  only  begot- 
ten Son  to  suffer  and  to  die  for  their  redemption.  If  any  thing  can 
add  sharpness  to  the  pains  of  hell,  it  must  be  the  recollection  that  all 
this  is  borne  in  consequence  of  such  infatuation  —  in  consequence  of 
such  madness,  as  that  which  put  away  salvation,  and  refused  eternal 
life.  There  would  be  something  tolerable  in  damnation  itself,  were  the 
hopeless  sufferers  doomed  to  it  by  a  decree  from  which  there  was  no 
escape  ;  there  would  be  some  solace  in  the  thought  —  "  Well,  whatever 
I  had  done  would  have  been  in  vain,  for  the  gates  of  eternal  life  were 
barred  against  my  admission."  But  oh !  what  will  it  be  for  the  lost 
soul  to  find  that  the  "  head  and  front  of  his  offending  "  was  this  — he 
would  not  go  to  Christ,  he  would  not  have  Christ  to  "  reign  over  him ;" 


EARLY    DEDICATION    TO    GOD.  163 

he  deliberately  put  away  eternal  life,  when  God's  own  hands  placed  it 
within  his  reach,  and  offered  it  for  his  acceptance. 

4.  In  the  fourth  place,  I  would  set  before  you  some  encouragements 
to  hope.  From  the  observations  which  I  have  abeady  addressed  to 
you,  I  would  have  you  draw  this  conclusion,  that  your  only  chance  of 
salvation  is  in  instantaneous  submission  to  Christ.  And  it  is  not  a 
mere  chance,  it  is  a  certainty ;  for  "  God  is  faithful ;"  —  and  the  ac- 
ceptance of  the  sinner  depends  on  his  faithfulness  —  "who  will  have 
all  men  to  be  saved,  and  to  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth."  The 
awakened  sinner,  then,  needs  not  go  to  the  throne  of  God  with  a  bare 
perad venture  as  to  the  question  of  his  acceptance ;  he  may  be  certain 
that  God  will  accept  him.  God  is  more  willing  to  bless  the  penitent 
than  the  penitent  to  receive  his  blessing  —  is  more  wilhng  to  clasp  in 
the  everlasting  arms  of  his  mercy  the  prodigal,  than  the  prodigal  is  to 
leave  the  husks  eaten  by  the  swine,  and  throw  himself  at  his  Father's 
feet.  Wherever  unwillingness  may  be  found,  there  is  no  unwillingness 
on  the  part  of  God.  He  is  saying,  "  Turn  ye,  turn  ye  ;  why  will  ye 
die  ?  "  And  he  is  saying  so  to  every  unconverted  hearer  this  evening. 
He  is  saying  so  especially  to  the  young,  who  have  not  yet  given  their 
hearts  to  Christ.  He  is  inviting  them  to  do  it  now  ;  he  is  inviting  them 
from  this  very  hour  —  from  this  very  service,  to  say,  each  for  himself, 
"  My  Father,  thou  art  the  guide  of  my  youth."  And,  my  dear  young 
friends,  what  a  kind  father  God  will  be  !  It  was  my  happiness,  first 
to  bow  before  his  throne  with  acceptance  in  my  early  days  ;  and  the 
only  regret  I  have  in  relation  to  that  matter,  is,  that  I  did  not  sooner 
bow  before  him.  Oh  !  if  I  can  persuade  the  youngest  child  here,  who 
is  capable  of  listening  to  this  discourse,  that  Christ  is  waiting  for  him 
—  that  God  is  waiting  for  him  —  that  the  Holy  Spirit  is  waiting  for 
him,  I  shall  not  have  labored  in  vain,  or  have  spent  my  strength  for 
nought.  I  am  persuaded  there  is  a  great  mistake  in  the  church  of 
God  concerning  the  possibility  of  youthful  piety  and  of  youthful  de- 
votion. I  am  thoroughly  persuaded,  as  the  result  of  long  experience, 
that  it  is  no  mere  proverb,  no  mere  parable  in  which  the  psalmist  says, 
"  Out  of  the  mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings  hast  thou  ordained  strength, 
because  of  thine  enemies,  that  thou  mightest  still  the  enemy  and  the 
avenger."  Many  a  Christian  parent  has  overlooked  the  most  valuable 
part  of  early  education,  under  the  vain  imagination  that  the  time  was 
not  come  to  lead  the  heart  of  his  child  to  God.  So  soon  as  the  child 
is  capable  of  understanding  the  outline  of  the  gospel  —  so  soon  as  the 
child  is  capable  of  knowing  what  was  meant  when  the  Savior  said. 
"  Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto  me,  and  forbid  them  not,  for  of 
such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven  "  —  so  soon  can  conversion  take  place. 


164  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

and  so  soon  can  conversion  bring  forth  its  appropriate  fruits,  and  put 
to  shame  "  the  enemy  and  the  avenger."  Mj  dear  Christian  friends, 
you  who  are  parents,  agonize  with  God  for  the  salvation  of  every  one 
of  your  children,  until  "  Christ  be  formed  in  them  the  hope  of  ever- 
lasting glory."  To  be  nursing  "  vessels  of  wrath  fitted  unto  destruc- 
tion," oh  !  what  a  mournful  task  !  And  yet  this  is  what  many  a  Chris- 
tian parent  is  undoubtedly  doing ;  and  doing,  because  he  has  never 
aright  regarded  his  responsibility,  or  the  claims  of  Christ.  The  parent 
should  account  every  child  that  is  given  to  his  care,  as  coming  from 
God  with  this  express  declaration,  "  Take  this  child  and  nurse  it  for 
me."  Oh!  for  that  care  —  for  that  piety  —  for  that  devotedness, 
which  shall  make  every  Christian  father  artd  every  Christian  mother,  a 
father  in  Israel  and  a  mother  in  Israel,  rearing  seed — godly  seed  — 
for  the  church  of  God,  and  for  his  heavenly  kingdom.  It  is  marvel- 
lous indeed —  it  is  marvellous  indeed,  how  indifferent  some  Christian 
parents  are  to  the  religious  condition  of  their  offspring.  I  have  some- 
times been  shocked,  when  on  asking  religious  parents  concerning  their 
children,  they  have  replied,  "  We  have  no  hope  of  them  at  present, 
sir,  but  they  are  but  young  as  yet."  Oh  !  the  devil  takes  their  hearts 
in  early  days,  and  why  should  not  Christ  have  them  ?  If  they  are  old 
enough  to  love  the  service  of  sin,  and  the  pleasures  of  the  world,  they 
are  old  enough  to  love  the  service  of  Christ,  and  to  know  the  pleasures 
of  devotion.  I  know  that  some  faint-hearted  and  timid  Christians  will 
marvel  at  the  agony  and  holy  piety  and  devotedness  which  will  lead 
a  Christian  parent  to  mourn  over  his  httle  one  who  as  yet  gives  no  signs 
of  a  decided  conversion.  But  why  do  the  faint-hearted  so  censure  ? 
Simply  because  they  believe  not  the  facts  of  the  case.  No  man  would 
censure  for  his  intensity  of  feeling,  no  man  would  censure  for  the  ut- 
most extravagance  of  manner,  the  poor  man  who  was  standing  in  the 
street  while  his  house  was  in  flames,  and  was  watching  the  operations 
of  the  firemen  as  they  were  raising  their  ladders  to  the  topmost  win- 
dows, where  his  wife  and  children  were  all  imploring  help,  and  expect- 
ing every  moment  of  delay  to  be  fatal,  and  to  sink  them  into  the  yawn- 
ing gulf  beneath.  Every  heart  would  glow  with  sympathy,  and  eve- 
ry hand  would  be  stretched  out  to  rescue  the  sufferers.  But  if  a  man 
be  indeed  anguished  because  his  wife  and  children  are  unconverted, 
why  is  he  censured  ?  Because  mankind  heed  not  the  declarations  of 
God  ;  and  therefore  heed  not  the  "  lake  which  burns  with  fire  and 
brimstone."  They  are  ready  to  give  the  man  their  sympathy,  Avhose 
wife  and  children  are  in  danger  of  perishing  in  the  flames,  for  they  be- 
lieve the  fire  will  burn  ;  but  they  charge  that  man  with  enthusiasm  who 
feels,  and  deeply  feels,  the  condition  of  his  unconverted  friends  and 


EARLY   DEDICATION   TO    GOD.  165 

relations.  But,  my  hearers,  shall  we  care  for  the  opinions  of  the 
wortd  ?  The  day  is  coming  which  will  prove  who  are  right  and  who 
are  wrong  ;  but  until  that  period,  as  Christians  who  "  know  in  whom 
thej  have  believed,"  by  all  that  is  sacred,  by  all  that  is  glorious,  by  all 
that  is  triumphant  in  the  sacrifice  and  mediation  of  Christ,  we  are 
bound  to  labor,  and  to  labor  to  the  utmost,  for  the  salvation  of  souls. 
But,  to  return.  Let  none  go  away  from  the  sanctuary  to-night,  and 
say,  "  I  am  no  longer  a  child,  and  therefore  the  warning  of  the  preach- 
er did  not  apply  to  me  ;  I  own  that  I  am  unconverted,  but  I  am  not  a 
youth,  and  therefore  the  invitation  of  mercy,  as  sounded  in  the  text, 
is  not  intended  for  my  ear."  My  dear  friend,  I  beseech  you,  in  God's 
name,  go  not  away  with  such  an  impression  as  this.  The  matter  is 
worse  for  you ;  one  of  God's  promises  has  lost  its  force  ;  wait  a  httle 
longer,  and  all  his  promises  will  be  by-gone  things.  You  can  no  long- 
er make  him  the  "  guide  of  your  youth,"  for  your  youth  is  past ;  wait 
a  little  longer,  and  there  will  not  be  one  promise  in  his  word  to  encour- 
age you ;  wait  a  little  longer,  and  you  will  not  have  one  opportunity  of 
flying  for  refuge  to  lay  hold  on  the  hope  that  is  set  before  you.  Take 
warning  from  the  fact  that  a  part  of  God's  mercy  is  gone  for  ever ;  — 
take  warning  from  the  fact  that  a  part  of  his  invitations  can  give  no 
longer  utterance  and  warning.  Take  warning.  '  Oh !  fly  for  refuge 
now,  while  one  promise  is  left — while  one  hope  of  mercy  remaineth. 
God  has  not  yet  in  anger  withdrawn  his  graciousness,  he  has  not  yet 
in  anger  shut  up  his  tender  mercies  ;  but  he  soon  will.  And  let  no 
one  say,  I  am  clear  from  my  obligations,  because  though  I  once  was 
the  child  of  many  prayers,  my  parents  have  long  since  ceased  to  pray 
for  me.  Ah !  they  have  been  in  heaven,  perhaps,  these  many  years  ; 
and  the  last  parting  regret  of  their  souls,  as  they  left  this  world,  was 
that  their  sons,  that  their  daughters  were  unconverted.  But,  imagine 
not  that  any  length  of  duration  can  obliterate  the  obligations,  which 
press,  and  shall  forever  press  upon  your  souls.  The  years  of  Methu- 
selah would  not  even  weaken  them.  Live  and  die  unconverted,  and 
eternity  itself  shall  but  perpetuate  them  for  ever  and  ever.  Refuse 
the  gospel,  trifle  a  little  longer  with  the  salvation  which  is  thus  set  be- 
fore you,  and  you  will  infallibly  perish  in  your  sins  ;  and  as  God  is  in 
heaven,  your  portion  will  be  in  hell  for  ever.  And  do  not  think  that 
yours  will  be  mere  damnation.  Yours  will  be  damnation  under  the 
most  awful,  under  the  most  aggravating  circumstances,  which  we  can 
conceive  ;  and  when  ages  of  interminable  suffering  shall  have  rolled 
away,  the  fresh  corruscations  of  ever-burning  light  shall  mark  your 
locality  in  hell;  and  the  lost  spirits  look  down,  and  Tyre  and  Sidon,yea, 
and  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  shall  shudder  in  the  distance  as  they  pass 


166  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

bj,  and  see  the  severer  doom  that  greets  the  child  of  many  prayers. 
Once  agam,  what  is  done  must  be  done  quickly.     If  you  had  a  mere 
chance  of  inheriting  a  large  fortune,  and  the  limitation  of  that  chance 
turned  upon  a  little  delay  unknown  to  you  —  say  that  the  application 
must  be  made  withui  a  hundred  days,  or  that  the  apphcation  must  be 
made  within  seven  years  — let  me  ask,  is  there  one  of  you  who  would 
let  to-morrow's  sun  set  on  the  world  without  having  made  sure  of  his 
claim,  without  having  made  it  sure  without  uncertainty  and  without 
delay.     Surely  your  soul  deserves  that  which  a  little  property  would 
not  be  denied ;  surely  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  deserves  that  which  Mam- 
mon would  at  once  have  as  his  tribute  ;  surely  if  you  would  be  thus 
anxious  to  receive  a  little  of  this  world's  wealth,  you  must  be  equally 
anxious,  you  ought  to  be  equally  anxious,  to  secure  the  great  salvation. 
The  truth  is,  if  you  will  not  answer  in  the  affirmative  to  the  question 
of  my  text,  "  Wilt  thou  not  from  this  time  cry  unto  me.  My  Father, 
thou  art  the  guide  of  my  youth  ?  "     I  fear  that  the  concealed  evil  in 
your  soul  is  infidelity,  which  you  would  not  own,  but  which  you  fondly 
cherish.     You  believe  not  that  God  has  spoken  to  you  —  you  believe 
not  that  he  will  speak  to  you  in  accents  of  thunder  by  and  by.     But 
you  must  beheve,  and  that  right  soon.     You  may  now  close  your  eyes 
against  the  brightest  revelations  of  the  Son  of  God ;  you  may  now 
stop  your  ears  against  the  sound  of  salvation,  and  trifle  with  redeem- 
ing love  ;  but  remember  that  your  eyes  and  your  ears  will  be  unstop- 
ped, and  that  very  shortly  you  will  behold  the  Lord  "  coming  with 
clouds,"  and  that  you  will  "  wail  because  of  him."     There  will  be  no 
mfideUty  then ;  there  will  be  no  avoiding  his  gaze  then.     In  vain  shall 
you  "  call  upon  the  rocks  to  hide  you,  and  upon  the  mountains  to  cov- 
er you  from  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb,"  which  shall  "  come  upon  you  to 
the  uttermost;"  and  in  vain  shall  you  attempt  to  close  your  ears  — 
those  ears  which  have  refused  to  listen  to  the  invitations  of  redeeming 
love  —  in  vain  shall  you  attempt  to  close  your  ears  against  the  awful 
thunders  which  shall  say,  "  Depart,  ye  cursed,  into  everlasting  fire, 
prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels."     The  lost  spirit  will  then  say, 
"  Well,  I  never  thought  it  would  come  to  this  ;  I  only  intended  to  neg- 
lect the   salvation  of  my  soul  for  a  little  season,  I  never  intended  to 
neglect  it  altogether  ;  God  is  my  witness  that  I  did  not  intend  for  ever 
to  neglect  his  Holy  Spirit ;  I  wanted  only  a  little  of  this  world's  pleas- 
ure ;  I  wanted  only  a  little  of  this  Avorld's  sin  ;  I  saw  that  others  had 
been  recovered  after  they  had  gone  as  far,  or  a  little  farther  than  my- 
self, and  I  took  courage  from  their  example  ;  I  never  intended  to  per- 
ish in  my  unbelief,  I  never  intended  to  reject  finally  the  grace  of  God. 
But  oh !  what  a  mistake  have  I  made  !     I  went  a  httle  too  far ;  I  went 


EARLY   DEDICATION   TO    GOD.  167 

beyond  the  verge  of  mercv.  God  liad  long  tolerated  me,  but  at  length 
he  said  he  would  tolerate  me  no  longer  ;  he  said  — '  I  will  bear  with 
the  transgressor  no  longer  ;  my  ministers,  let  him  alone  ;  Providence, 
let  him  alone  ;  my  Spirit,  let  him  alone  ;'  and  the  result  is  that  I  am 
lost.  Here  I  am,  and  here  I  must  bo  for  ever."  My  dear  young 
friends,  shall  it  come  to  this  ?  Shall  it  come  to  this,  after  all  that  you 
have  heard,  after  all  that  you  have  felt,  after  all  that  you  have  received  ? 
Shall  others  press  into  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  shall  you  be  shut  out  ? 
Shall  it  be  said  of  some  of  you, "  Many  shall  come  from  the  east  and  west, 
and  shall  sit  down  with  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob, in  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,  but  the  children  of  the  kingdom  shall  be  cast  out  ?  "  Shall 
you  be  among  them  ?  You  will,  you  infallibly  will,  in  God's  name  I  tell 
you  you  will,  unless  you  answer  in  the  affirmative  the  question  of  my  text, 
"  Wilt  thou  not  from  this  time  cry  unto  me.  My  Father,  thou  art  the 
guide  of  my  youth  ?  "  God  is  sincere  in  asking  it,  the  Holy  Spirit  is 
sincere  in  asking  it,  Christ  is  sincere  in  asking  it.  Will  you  doubt  the 
sincerity  of  the  Almighty  ?  will  you  dare  to  trifle  a  little  longer  and 
a  little  longer  with  the  great  salvation  ?  Well,  then,  in  conclusion, 
mark  my  words.  You  may  forget  all  this  sermon  now,  but  you  will 
remember  it  in  hell.  Nay,  nay,  I  will  not  undertake  to  say  that  you 
will  remember  my  poor  arguments  and  weak  illustrations  there  ;  they 
are  poor  and  weak  indeed,  compared  with  the  awful  truth  ;  but  this  I  will 
undertake  to  say,  you  will  remember  my  text  there,  you  will  never  forget 
it.  It  will  be  wTitten  m  your  conscience  as  with  a  pen  of  iron  in  letters 
of  living  fire ;  you  will  remember,  that  then,  that  there,  that  at  this 
time,  God  said  imto  you,  "  Wilt  thou  not  from  this  time  cry  unto  me, 
My  Father,  thou  art  the  guide  of  my  youth  ?  "  —  and  you  dared  to 
say,  "  0  Lord,  I  will  not  have  thy  guidance  ;  0  Lord,  I  will  not  accept 
thy  salvation,  I  will  have  none  of  thy  counsel,  I  reject  thy  reproof." 
Remember,  that  if  you  make  this  hard  bargain,  you  must  stand  by  it, 
and  none  will  have  a  right  to  complain.  Remember  it  is  your  o^vn 
doing  ;  for  God  invites  you,  heaven  invites  you — will  you  not  repent, 
will  you  not  be  saved  ? 

In  conclusion,  I  tell  you  I  have  no  hope  of  your  conversion  to  God, 
if  your  reply  is,  "  I  will  think  of  this  matter."  I  have  no  hope  of  your 
conversion,  if  your  reply  is,  "  I  will  meditate  on  this  matter  when  I 
go  home."  Do  it  now.  God  is  waiting.  Now  let  the  resolve  ascend 
to  his  throne,  before  the  last  h^'-mn  is  over,  before  the  service  closes. — 
Let  the  answer  be  made  to  God  now  —  "  My  Father,  I  will  say  unto 
thee,  '  thou  art  my  guide  ; '  my  Father,  I  will  consecrate  my  body, 
soul,  and  spirit  unto  thee.  Thanks,  immortal  thanks  to  thy  name,  that 
I  have  the  power  to  do  it.     I  bless  thee  that  I  am  not  in  hell  ;  I  bless 


168  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

thee  that  I  have  not  perished  in  my  sins ;  I  bless  thee  that  I  have  not 
sinned  away  the  last  hope  of  mercy,  and  that  thou  art  waiting  to  be 
gracious ;  and  now,  after  having  tried  thy  patience  so  long,  I  will  try 
it  no  more.  My  Father,  be  thou  the  guide  of  my  youth,  my  portion 
and  my  hope,  my  guide  even  unto  death."    Amen. 


SERMON   XIV. 

aOD'S     LOVE     TO    THE     WORLD. 
BY  REV.  W.  ATHERTON. 

"  For  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only-begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  hin» 
•hould  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life." — John  iii.  16. 

The  chapter  now  before  us  contains  a  variety  of  important  and  inter- 
esting matter.  In  the  beginning  we  have  an  annunciation,  accompanied 
by  a  solemn  asseveration,  which  is  enough  to  make  any  man  thoughtful; 
in  the  conclusion,  we  have  a  denunciation  which  is  enough  to  make  any 
thoughtful  man  tremble  ;  and  in  the  interval,  we  have  glad  tidings  of 
great  joy,  suited  to  all  people.  In  the  commencement  we  hear  it  said 
by  Jesus  Christ,  "  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee,  except  a  man  be 
born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God."  This  is  enough  to 
make  any  man  thoughtful ;  especially  when  we  consider  that  it  is  ad- 
dressed to  an  old  man  —  to  a  rehgious  man  —  to  a  master  in  Israel ; 
and  that  it  was  necessary  to  tell  even  him  that  he  must  be  born  again. 
In  the  conclusion  of  the  chapter,  we  are  told  —  "He  that  believeth  not 
the  Son  shall  not  see  life  ;  but  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him." — 
This  is  enough  to  make  an  unbeliever  tremble.  Then,  in  the  middle 
of  the  chapter,  we  have  indeed  tidings  of  great  joy ;  for  it  is  said, 
"  God  sent  not  his  Son  into  the  world  to  condemn  the  world ;  but  th^t 
the  world  through  him  might  be  saved.  As  Moses  lifted  up  the  ser- 
pent in  the  wilderness,  even  so  must  the  Son  of  man  be  hfted  up ;  that 
whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  eternal  life. — 
For  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only-begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life.'' 
The  coming  of  Jesus  Christ  into  our  world  ;  the  work  he  performed  ; 
the  redemption  which  he  effected  ;  and  the  greatest  events  the  world 
ever  knew,  or  of  which  men  can  ever  be  told.  This  was  the  great  ob- 
ject of  creation — the  grand  design  of  Providence.  This  event  was 
revealed  to  men  by  the  holy  prophets,  announced  by  the  voice  of  an- 


god's  love  to  the  world.  169 

gels,  recorded  by  tlie  pen  of  inspiration,  and  is  of  the  greatest  impor- 
tance to  us.     The  words  of  the  text  lead  us  to  consider, 

I.  The  objects  of  God's  love. 

"  God  so  loved  the  ivorld."  This  expression  has  various  significations 
in  Scripture.  Sometimes  it  means  the  globe  on  which  we  live,  —  the 
earth  which  we  behold,  with  all  its  various  scenery,  its  furniture,  and 
the  animals  by  which  it  is  inhabited.  Thus  it  was  said,  "  He  was  in 
the  world,  and  the  world  knew  him  not."  "  He  came  into  the  world 
to  save  sinners."  But  while  heaven  is  God's  throne,  the  earth  is  his 
footstool.  Much  as  it  is  desired  ;  much  as  it  is  idohzed ;  much  as  it  is 
pursued ;  —  this  world  is  the  most  despicable  of  all  God's  creatures,  — 
it  is  that  on  which  he  sets  his  feet.  And  yet  men  set  their  hearts  on 
the  footstool,  wliile  they  might  have  the  throne.  The  words  of  the 
text  cannot  apply  to  this. 

By  this  term  we  sometimes  understand  the  G-entiles  in  every  nation, 
age,  and  circumstance,  as  distinguished  from  the  Jews,  who  had  a  rev- 
elation of  the  true  God,  the  knowledge  of  his  will,  and  the  services 
of  his  law ;  while  the  rest  of  mankind,  the  Gentiles,  were  in  the 
grossest  ignorance,  addicted  to  the  vilest  superstitions,  and  sunk  into 
the  most  sensual  idolatries  that  ever  disgraced  men.  Thus  we  read, 
"  If  the  fxll  of  them,"  —  that  is,  the  Jews  —  "  be  the  riches  of  the 
world,  and  the  diminishing  of  them  the  riches  of  the  Gentiles,  how 
much  more  their  fulness  ?  "  Here  the  words  "  world  "  and  "  Gen- 
tiles "  are  evidently  synonymous.  And  again  :  "  If  the  casting  away 
of  them  be  the  reconciling  of  the  loorld,  Avhat  shall  the  receiving  of 
them  be,  but  life  from  the  dead  ?  "  Here,  also,  the  term  "  world  '* 
means  the  Gentiles.  Now  "  God  so  loved  the  world,"  —  the  Gentile 
world  —  a  world  perishing  in  ignorance  and  idolatry,  that  he  gave  his 
Son  to  die  for  them. 

The  term  means,  also,  the  ungodly  part  of  manhlnd,  as  distin- 
guished from  believers  who  have  "  passed  from  death  unto  life."  Thus, 
Christ  said  to  his  disciples,  "  Ye  are  not  of  the  world,  but  I  have 
chosen  you  out  of  the  world,  therefore  the  world  hatcth  you."  Be- 
lievers are  not  of  the  unenlightened,  carnal,  unregencratc  world.  They 
are  separated  from  it,  hated  by  it,  opposed  to  it ;  and  these  are  rea- 
sons why  they  should  not  wish  to  be  united  to  it. 

The  term  most  commonly  signifies  all  mankind  —  every  child  of 
Adam.  In  this  sense  we  read,  "  the  whole  world  lieth  in  wickedness ; " 
—  ^Hhe  whole  ivorld  is  become  guilty  before  God."  And  in  this 
extended  sense  we  understand  the  term  in  the  text.  This  sense  fully 
accords  with  all  the  attributes  of  Deity,  and  is  well  supported  by  the 


170  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

united  testimony  of  the  Holj  Scriptures.  Hence,  we  are  told  that 
Christ  "  loved  the  church,  and  gave  himself  for  it ; "  and  again,  that 
he  "  died  for  the  ungodly  ;  "  and  the  ungodly  and  the  church  include, 
of  course,  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  "  He  is  the  propitiation 
for  our  sins ;  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  also  for  the  sins  of  the  whole 
world."  The  term  "  the  whole  world  "  is  only  employed  twice  in  the 
sacred  volume  :  and  on  both  occasions  by  this  same  apostle.  First,  he 
says,  "the  whole  world  lieth  in  the  wicked  one;"  and  again, — 
"  Christ  is  the  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world."  We  can 
assign  no  reason  whatever  why  the  words  should  not  be  understood  in 
the  same  sense  in  one  place  as  in  the  other.  But  we  are  told,  also, 
"  if  Christ  died  for  all,  then  were  all  dead  ;  and  he  died  for  all,  that 
they  should  henceforth  live  unto  him."  The  same  "  all  "  that  were 
dead  in  sin,  is  the  "all  for  whom  Christ  died."  Again:  "He  gave 
himself  a  ransom  for  aZ?."  "  All  we  like  sheep  have  gone  astray ;  the 
Lord  laid  on  him  the  iniquity  of  us  all."  The  same  "  all "  that  had 
gone  astray  like  lost  sheep,  was  the  "  all"  whose  iniquities  were  laid 
on  him.  And  lest  still  we  should  suppose  that  "  all  men  "  meant  only 
a  part,  we  are  expressly  told  that  "  Jesus  Christ,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
tasted  death  for  every  many 

Here,  then,  we  have  a  ground  for  hope.  We  are  the  objects  of  God's 
love.  Men  can  only  exclude  themselves  from  his  compassion  by  wil- 
ful obstinacy  and  unbelief.  God  has  given  a  commission  to  his  minis- 
ters to  go  "  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creor 
ture  ;  "  and  "  God  so  loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only-begotten 
Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  ever- 
lasting life."     Let  us  consider, 

II.  The  nature  and  degree  op  this  love. 

1.  Its  nature.  But  in  speaking  of  the  nature  of  this  love,  it  is 
much  more  easy  to  say  what  it  is  not,  than  to  say  what  it  is.  It  could 
not  be  a  love  of  corrvplacency .  We  love  objects  on  account  of  their 
excellency,  or  their  beauty,  or  their  fitness  to  make  us  happy.  But  in 
man  there  is,  by  nature,  no  moral  excellence,  no  rectitude  of  principle, 
no  beauty  of  hohness.  His  nature  is  depraved,  his  principles  are  cor- 
rupt, his  actions  are  defiled,  his  soul  is  black  with  pollution,  the  whole 
head  is  sick,  the  whole  heart  is  faint ;  he  is  so  destitute  of  every  par- 
ticle of  righteousness  that  he  has  nothing  to  cover  or  conceal  the  naked- 
ness of  his  nature.  God  must,  therefore,  look  upon  such  a  creature 
with  the  greatest  abhorrence. 

It  must,  therefore,  be  a  love  of  j;%.  He  looked  down  from  his 
high  and  holy  habitation,  and  saw  that  men  everyAvhere  were  filled 


god's  love  to  the  world.  171 

with  all  unrighteousness,  stung  by  the  scorpion  sin,  writhing  in  anguish, 
\ying  in  the  regions  of  death,  sinking  to  everlasting  misery  !  He  be- 
held man  ignorant  of  all  that  is  necessary  for  him  to  know,  and  none 
to  teach  him.  He  saw  him  amidst  the  most  splendid  and  costly  sacri- 
fices, unable  to  present  a  suitable  atonement  for  the  sins  of  his  soul. 
He  marked  him  ardently  pursuing  pleasure,  yet  finding  no  satisfaction. 
He  saw  him  about  to  sink,  the  prey  of  death  and  hell,  while  there  was 
none  to  rescue,  none  to  deliver.  In  this  state  he  pitied  him  ;  he  alight- 
ed by  him,  as  he  lay  in  his  sins  and  in  his  blood,  and  he  said,  "  I  have 
loved  thee  in  thy  lost  estate,  and  have  sent  my  Son,  my  incarnate  Son, 
to  rescue  and  redeem  thee  !  " 

This  love  was  unmerited.  The  men  to  whom  it  is  manifested  saw  no 
need  of  it,  made  no  effort  to  obtain  it,  did  not  even  seek  it.  If  a  pious 
act,  a  good  word,  a  gracious  thought,  would  have  merited  heaven  itself, 
man  had  it  not  to  give.  On  the  contrary,  men  despised,  rejected, 
scoflfed  at  the  proffered  good.  "  Behold,"  said  John,  "  what  manner 
of  love  the  Father  hath  bestowed  upon  us  !  "  What  manner  of  love  ? 
Wliy,  a  love  unmerited,  free,  every  way  worthy  of  God. 

It  was  disinterested.  When  we  hear  that  God  loved  the  world,  we 
are  not  to  suppose  that  he  gained  any  thing  by  it :  —  no,  he  made  no 
acquisition  to  his  authority ;  he  increased  not  the  extent  of  his  domin- 
ions ;  he  made  no  addition  to  his  knowledge,  to  his  happiness,  to  his 
essential  glory.  All  these  he  possessed  in  infinite  degrees  before. 
Were  God  to  blot  out  of  existence  every  creature  he  had  made,  or 
were  man  to  damn  himself  to  everlasting  misery,  the  happiness  of  God 
would  experience  no  diminution.  And  were  he  to  create  innumerable 
worlds,  people  them  all  with  seraphs  or  archangels,  and  bring  them  all 
to  worship  in  his  presence,  —  still  this  would  add  nothing  to  his  essen- 
tial glory.  The  riches  of  his  glory  are  the  same  from  eternity  to  eter- 
nity, and  are  incapable  of  either  rismg  or  falling.  He  could  not  love 
the  world  from  a  motive  of  interest :  therefore  man,  and  man  alone, 
derives  the  benefit.     Notice, 

2.  The  degree  of  this  love.  It  is  so  high,  no  thought  can  reach  it; 
so  deep,  no  mind  can  fathom  it ;  so  extensive  in  its  range,  no  tongue 
can  declare  it. 

The  gift  itself  bespeaks  its  greatness.  "  God  so  loved  the  world, 
that  he  gave" — what?  a  throne  of  light?  —  No.  What?  some 
servant  of  his  presence,  some  first-born  son  of  light?  —  No.      "\Yhat? 

—  He  "so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  Son  —  his  begotten  Son 

—  his  only-begotten  Son  ;  the  brightness  of  his  own  glory;  the  express 
image  of  his  Father's  person  ;  the  heir  of  all  things."  Such  love  as 
this  cannot  be  told :  the  Redeemer  himself  does  not  attempt  to  tell 


172  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

US ;  he  has  put  an  eternity  of  meaning  into  this  particle  "  so,"  and 
has  left  it  for  the  eternal  study  and  admiration  of  angels  and  of 
men.  "  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only-begotten 
Son." 

Tlie  subjects  on  whom  tliis  love  is  bestowed  raise  its  degree.  "  God 
so  loved  the  world,'"  that  is,  men :  who,  when  spoken  of  in  comparison 
with  their  Maker,  are  called  worms,  grasshoppers,  nothing,  less  than 
nothing,  and  vanity ;  mere  clods  of  matter,  with  a  spark  of  mind,  mys- 
teriously united  by  the  Deity.  And  yet,  this  man,  this  worm,  this 
nothing,  this  less  than  nothing,  and  vanity ;  man,  sunk  in  sin,  a  daring 
rebel  against  God  in  his  heart  and  in  his  life,  leagued  with  Satan,  op- 
posed in  all  things  to  the  authority  and  law  of  God ;  —  this  insignificant, 
unworthy  man,  God  so  loved,  as  to  meditate  and  devise  his  recovery  to 
favor,  to  happiness,  to  eternal  life. 

We  learn  the  degrees  of  this  love,  also,  from  the  expressions  of  the 
Redeemer  toivards  his  enemies.  See  him  going  to  Jerusalem  for  the 
last  time  ;  —  Jerusalem,  a  place  pre-eminent  in  cruelty,  "  the  slaugh- 
ter-house of  G^d's  servants ; "  and  in  less  than  a  week,  perhaps,  to 
become  the  place  of  his  own  execution.  He  overlooks  the  malice  of 
the  Pharisees,  the  treachery  of  Judas,  the  infidelity  of  Peter,  the  cow- 
ardice of  all  his  disciples,  the  cruelty  of  his  accusers,  the  ignominy  of 
ihQ  cross,  the  pain  of  death ;  and  he  fixes  his  eyes  on  the  vast  inunda- 
tion of  wrath  which  was  coming  on  the  devoted  city.  He  might  have 
looked  on  all  this  with  feelings  of  joy,  as  a  just  retribution  for  the  loss 
of  so  much  blood.  But  no :  he  gazed  on  the  approaching  wrath  ;  his 
eye  afi'ected  his  heart  —  his  heart  afiected  his  tongue,  and,  with  strong 
compassion  he  cried  —  "  How  often  would  I  have  gathered  thy  chil- 
dren together,  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  chickens  under  her  wings,  and  ye 
would  not !  "  He  sees  his  mistaken  accusers  met  together  to  demand 
his  innocent  blood  ;  he  hears  them  loudly  clamor  for  his  life.  He  does 
not  call  for  a  legion  of  angels  at  once,  to  sweep  them  to  the  hell  they 
deserved ;  but  spends  his  last  breath,  and  sheds  his  dearest  blood,  to 
buy  pardon  for  his  murderers  !  Nor  did  he  forget  them  after  he  had 
ended  his  life.  He  commissioned  his  disciples  to  go  and  preach  to 
them ;  —  "Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  in  my  name, 
beginning  at  Jerusalem.''^  It  might  rather  have  been  thought  that  he 
would  have  said,  "  Go  to  the  outcast  heathen ;  visit  the  abominable 
Gentiles  ;  penetrate  to  the  very  ends  of  the  earth  ;  —  these,  though 
they  have  sinned  deeply,  have  not  sinned  agamst  such  mercy  and  grace. 
But  come  not  near  that  ungodly  race,  the  dwellers  in  Jerusalem.  They 
have  slaughtered  my  servants,  the  prophets ;  they  have  taken  the  head 
of  John  the  Baptist,  whom  I  sent,  to  reward  a  lascivious  dance ;  last 


god's  love  to  the  world.  173 

of  all,  they  have  wickedly  shed  my  blood.  If  you  should  visit  some 
of  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel,  yet  enter  not  Jerusalem ;  let 
not  the  gospel  pass  through  those  gates,  through  which  they  led  me,  its 
Author,  to  shed  my  blood."  But  no  :  — he  said,  "  Go  to  Jerusalem ; 
and,  to  show  the  value  of  my  gospel,  the  efficacy  of  my  atonement,  the 
power  of  my  love,  —  go  there  first.  Let  those  who  shed  my  blood  be 
the  first  to  taste  its  healing  virtue  ;  let  those  who  troubled  the  waters 
be  the  first  to  participate  in  their  valued  influence  ;  let  those  who  struck 
the  rock  be  the  first  to  drink  of  its  salutary  streams.  Go  to  Jerusa- 
lem ;  and,  should  you  in  your  wanderings  meet  the  poor  wretch  that 
thrust  his  spear  into  my  side,  tell  him  that  the  wound  he  made  has 
opened  a  cleft  in  my  heart  sufficiently  wide  to  take  him  in ;  and  that 
the  blood  and  water  which  he  caused  to  flow,  has  sufficient  virtue  to 
pardon  and  purify  him.  Begin  at  Jerusalem  ; —  the  inhabitants  thereof 
lately  said,  '  His  blood  be  on  us,  and  on  our  children.'  And  so  be  it ! 
but  not  in  vengeance  on  their  heads,  but  in  all  its  virtue  to  soften,  and 
in  all  its  efficacy  to  save  !  Let  it  be  on  their  consciences  and  on  their 
hearts,  making  them  meet  for  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light." 

The  degree  of  this  love  appears,  also,  in  the  extent  of  the  Savior's 
sufferings.  From  the  manger  to  the  cross,  he  became  "  a  man  of  sor- 
rows, and  acquainted  with  grief."  He  personally  experienced  pain  and 
want ;  he  had  "  not  where  to  lay  his  head."  His  words  were  pervert- 
ed ;  his  actions  were  misconstrued  ;  his  miracles  were  ascribed  to  an 
influence  he  hated.  He  was  betrayed  by  a  chosen  companion,  aban- 
doned by  his  friends  in  the  hour  of  distress,  and  forsaken  by  his  heav- 
enly Father  !  See  him  pressed  down,  crushed,  and  groaning  beneath 
the  weight  of  woe  and  sin  !  What  horror  of  darkness,  what  anguish 
of  soul,  was  ever  to  be  compared  to  his  !  The  Father  has  forsaken 
him !  A  child  has  grown  up  before  his  parent,  "  as  a  tender  plant, 
and  as  a  root  out  of  a  dry  ground  ;  "  he  has  grown  up  to  perfection, 
and  become  the  object  of  his  delight  —  his  only  joy !  But  this  child 
is  taken  suddenly,  dangerously  ill ;  the  disease  makes  rapid  and  malig- 
nant progress ;  it  threatens  to  take  away  the  dehght  of  his  eyes,  the 
joy  of  his  heart.  The  parent  sees  the  progress  of  the  disease ;  he 
marks  the  ravages  it  makes  ;  and  his  feelings  keep  pace  with  its  pro- 
gress. He  sees  his  child  in  the  agonies  of  death ;  he  witnesses  his 
struggles  ;  he  hears  his  sighs ;  the  last  gleam  of  his  eye  fastens  on  his 
father,  while,  in  his  last  agony,  he  cries,  "Father,  help  me!  father, 
save  me  from  this  hour !  "  And  what  is  there  which  such  a  father  would 
not  do  for  such  a  son  ?  Now,  behold  this  scene  realized.  See  the  agony 
of  the  Savior !  Mark  him  in  the  dark,  cold  night,  prostrate  on  the 
damp  garden,  bedewing  the  earth  with  his  tears ;  groaning  through  the 


174  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

distress  of  his  soul ;  sweating  "  as  it  were  great  drops  of  blood  falling 
to  the  ground  ;  "  piercing  heaven  with  his  cries,  and  saying,  in  effect, 
"  If  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass  from  me !  Save  me  from  this 
hour !  "  The  Father  hears  the  agonizing  supplication  of  his  Son,  and 
yet  he  turns  away.  Nay,  he  appears  to  frown  upon  his  Son  in  the 
depth  of  his  anguish  ;  and,  while  he  frowns  upon  his  Son,  he  turns  a 
smile  of  mercy  on  a  half  damned  world  !  But  follow  him  to  the  con- 
summation of  his  pains ;  see  him  ascend  the  rugged  hill  of  Calvary. 
Mark  how  they  pierce  his  hands  and  his  feet !  He  weeps,  and  the 
drops  extinguish  the  sun  !  He  sighs,  and  his  sigh  rends  the  rocks ! 
He  groans,  and  his  last  groan  causes  the  earth  to  tremble !  All 
nature  sympathized,  and  owned  the  presence  of  the  Creator  of  the 
world !  "  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only-begotten 
Son." 

Then,  the  numler  of  the  subjects  of  this  love  shows  the  greatness  of 
its  degree.  "  God  so  loyed  the  world,'"  —  all  mankind.  This  love  is 
unconfined,  unlimited.  "Whosoever  believeth," — in  whatever  age 
or  clime,  —  whatsoever  his  national,  civil,  intellectual,  or  moral  distinc- 
tions ;  whatever  the  nature,  the  number,  the  magnitude,  the  repeti- 
tions of  his  iniquities.  As  all  need  the  exercise  of  this  love,  so  to  all 
it  is  ofibred ;  as  all  need,  so  all  may  have  it ;  as  "  all  have  sinned  and 
come  short  of  the  glory  of  God,"  so  "  whosoever  believeth  "  need  not 
perish,  but  may  have  "  everlasting  life."     This  love  extends  to  all. 

ni.  The  design  op  this  love. 

It  is  that  we  should  "  not  perish,  but  have  everlastuig  life.  "  Here, 
1.  Observe,  that /or  sin  the  world  deserved  to  perish.  This  is  the 
true  state,  the  natural  condition  of  the  world  ;  it  is  actually  perishing. 
The  word  "  perish"  has  reference  sometimes  to  the  death  of  the 
body.  Thus  the  affrighted  mariner  said  to  Jonah, "  What  meanest  thou, 
0  sleeper?  arise,  call  upon  thy  God,  if  so  be  that  God  will  think  upon 
us,  that  we  perish  not ; "  that  we  lose  not  our  lives  —  that  we  be  not  en- 
gulphed  in  the  ocean.  As  all  have  "  sinned,  and  come  short  of  the 
glory  of  God,"  the  sentence  of  death  has  passed  universally  on  all ; 
—  "  Dust  thou  art,  and  unto  dust  thou  shalt  return."  No  man  can 
expect  to  be  exempt  from  the  attack  of  death.  But,  through  the  mer- 
its of  Christ,  God  has  determined  that  man  shall  not  utterly  perish  ; 
that  he  shall  not  ultimately  and  for  ever  see  corruption.  Jesus  Christ 
hath  "  abohshed  death  ;  "  he  has  destroyed  its  power ;  he  has  obtained 
a  victory  over  it.  The  monster,  death,  shall  be  made  to  disgorge  his 
prey.  To  the  believer  in  Christ,  death  is  converted  into  a  sleep ;  he 
can  scarcely  be  said  to  die ;  he  rather  falls  asleep  in  the  arms  of  his 


god's  love  to  the  world.  175 

Lord  ;  wliile  he  hears  God  saying  to  him,  in  effect,  "  Fear  not  to  go 
down  into  the  grave ;  for  I  will  go  down  with  thee,  and  will  bring  thee 
up  again.  I'ear  not  the  cold  earth,  the  gnawing  worms,  the  disgusting 
putridity  ;  I  have  entered  the  grave  before ;  I  have  sanctified  it  by  my 
presence  ;  I  have  converted  it  into  a  bed  of  roses.  I  will  bring  thee 
up  again.  If  thou  goest  down  in  weakness,  I  will  bring  thee  up  again 
in  power  ;  if  thou  goest  down  in  corruption,  I  will  raise  thee  up  in 
incorruption ;  if  thou  goest  down  a  natural  body,  I  will  bring  thee  up 
again  a  spiritual  body,  amazingly  refined,  astonishingly  improved.  I 
will  change  thy  vile  body,  and  fashion  it  like  unto  my  own  glorious 
body.     Thus,  thou  shalt  not  perish,  but  be  raised  to  life  eternal." 

The  word  "  perish  "  is  expressive  sometimes  of  mental  misery.  When 
the  prodigal  is  represented  as  far  from  his  father's  house,  it  is  said  he 
was  ready  to  perish.  Every  imregenerate  man  is  destitute  of  peace  ; 
he  has  no  mental  satisfaction ;  he  is  the  slave  of  sin  ;  the  drudge  of  Sor 
tan  ;  under  the  tyranny  of  evil  passions  and  appetites  ;  distracted  by  a 
guilty  conscience  ;  an  "  aUen  from  the  commonwealth  of  Israel ;  a 
stranger  to  the  covenant  of  promise  ;  having  no  hope,  and  without  God 
in  the  world."  Now,  God  has  given  his  Son,  that  we  might  not  thus 
perish  ;  that  Son  has  suffered  death  that  we  might  be  redeemed  ;  that 
"we  might  be  delivered  from  the  powers  of  Satan  and  the  world  ;  that 
■we  might  be  brought  into  the  possession  gf  peace  ;  that  our  wants 
might  be  supplied  ;  and  that  ayc  might  have  true  satisfaction  and  last- 
ing joj- 

The  word  "  perish  "  means,  also,  everlasting  condemnation.  Thus  it 
is  said,  "As  many  as  have  sinned  without  law,  shall  also  perish  with- 
out law :  "  and  again,  —  "  The  Lord  is  long  suffering,  not  willing  that 
any  should  perish.''^  This  sense  of  the  word  includes  banishment  "  from 
the  presence  of  the  Lord,  and  from  the  glory  of  his  power ; "  it  is  to 
be  damned  without  .the  possibihty  of  ever  rising ;  it  is  the  being  doom- 
ed to  "  the  lake  that  burneth  with  fire  and  brimstone,  which  is  the  sec- 
ond death ;  "  it  is  to  feel  the  gnawing  of  the  worm  that  "  dieth  not," 
and  the  scorching  of  the  flame  that  is  not  quenched  ;  it  is  to  suffer  the 
bitter  pains  of  everlasting  death.  Every  man,  by  reason  of  sin,  is 
doomed  thus  to  perish,  both  body  and  soul,  here  and  everlastingly. 
But  through  the  free  pardon,  which  is  bought  by  the  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  received  by  faith,  he  is  so  delivered  that  over  him  the  sec- 
ond death  has  no  power. 

2.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  he  shall  "  have  everlasting  life.^^  This 
everlasting  life  has  a  beginning  in  the  present  state :  it  commences 
while  the  soul  is  yet  united  to  the  body.  Man,  by  nature,  is  "  dead  in 
trespasses  and  sins :  "  all  his  powers  are  under  the  influence  of  a  moral 


176  THE  ENGLISH  PDLPIT. 

paralysis :  he  is  incapable  of  spiritual  actions  and  enjoyments.  But, 
through  the  sacrificial  death  of  Jesus  Christ,  fallen  man  is  quickened  : 
his  understanding  is  enlightened  to  see  his  state  ;  his  heart  is  softened ; 
his  various  powers  are  brought  into  exercise  ;  jjious  resolutions  are 
formed  ;  peace  takes  possession  of  his  conscience  ;  hope  springs  up  in 
his  breast ;  he  flees  for  refuge  "  to  lay  hold  on  the  hope  set  before 
him."  Thus  he  is  passed  from  death  unto  life  :  he  is  raised  "  from  a 
death  in  sin  to  a  life  of  righteousness." 

This  life  has  its  existence  in  the  soul,  in  virtue  of  a  vital  union  with 
Jesus  Christ.  It  is  a  life  which  is  infused  by  the  gracious  influence  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  It  consists  of  joy,  peace,  hope,  love,  holiness,  and 
the  prospect  of  life  everlasting.  He  who  has  this,  has  a  life  of  the  same 
nature  with  the  future,  though  it  is  inferior  in  its  degree.  Hence,  it 
is  called  the  earnest,  the  first  fruits,  the  foretaste  :  the  same  life  that 
he  shall  have  in  future,  he  has  now  in  part ;  the  present  is  a  drop  of 
that  mighty  ocean. 

This  "  everlasting  life  "  includes  the  fulness  of  joywhich  is  at  God's 
right  hand — the  pleasures  which  endure  for  ever  more.  This  includes 
a  nearer  and  fuller  view  of  the  Redeemer,  a  closer  union  with  the 
Father  of  our  spirits.  Every  hindrance  to  serving  God  will  be  fully 
removed  ;  every  desire  will  be  enlarged  and  fulfilled ;  every  thing  that 
is  evil  will  be  put  out  of  the  way ;  the  soul  will  be  filled  with  bliss  and 
happiness  unutterable,  and  endowed  with  a  "  far  more  exceeding  and 
eternal  weight  of  glory."  In  consequence  of  sin  man  lost  all  right 
and  title  to  this  life ;  but  through  the  death  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the 
benefits  of  his  death,  man  may  be  brought  to  rejoice  in  all  this.  Let 
us  consider, 

IV.  The  WAT  in  which  we  may  be  interested  in  the  bene- 
fits OF  this  gift  of  the  Redeemer. 

That  we  may  "  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life,"  beheving  is 
indispensably  necessary. 

The  word  believing  is  sometimes  to  be  understood  in  a  simple  sense, 
as  expressing  an  act  of  the  mind.  To  believe  is  neither  more  nor  less 
than  to  take  Cfod  at  his  word. 

1.  We  must  beUeve  the  record  God  has  given  us  of  man.  And 
what  is  this  ?  Why,  that  he  is  ignorant,  wicked,  depraved,  dead ;  that 
"  the  whole  head  is  sick,  and  the  whole  heart  faint ;  "  that  in  his  flesh 
dwells  nothing  that  is  good.  When  we  understand,  beheve,  and  feel 
this,  it  humbles  our  proud  spirits,  induces  true  penitence  of  heart,  and 
urges  us  to  flee  for  refuge  from  the  wrath  to  come. 

2.  We  must  believe  the  testimony  Cfod  has  given  of  his  Son.     And 


god's  love  to  the  world.  177 

vrhat  is  this  ?  That  he  was  equal  ^^•ith  God  ;  that  he  has  "  borne  our 
sin,  and  carried  our  sorrow ;  "  that  he  has  satisfied  the  demands  of  the 
divine  justice  ;  that  he  has  healed  the  honors  of  the  broken  law  ;  that  he 
has  "  finished  transgression,  and  made  reconcihation  for  iniquity  ;"  — 
that  he  has  obtained  salvation  for  us  at  the  hands  of  his  heavenly  Fath- 
er. To  receive  this  testimony  aright,  is  to  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
made  over  to  sinners  as  a  complete  and  willing  Savior.  A  sure  trust 
and  confidence  in  this ;  a  firm  reliance  in  Jesus  Christ,  as  made  a  sin- 
offering  for  us ;  as  coming  to  free  us  from  condemnation,  and  save  us ; 
this  is  the  faith  which  brings  comfort  and  peace  into  the  soul. 

And  there  must  be  a  cmitinuance  in  this.  This  will  give  us  power 
over  every  sin,  and  victory  over  every  temptation,  till  our  natures  are 
conformed  to  that  of  Christ ;  till  our  lives  are  formed  upon  the  model  .j 
of  his  ;  till  "  as  he  Avas,  so  we  are,  in  this  world.^^  So  that,  in  order  ' 
that  we  "  may  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life,"  we  must  believe, 
and  continue  to  believe  ;  "  the  life  that  we  now  live  in  the  flesh,"  must 
be  "  by  faith  on  the  Son  of  God  ;  "  and  the  faith  we  exercised  at  first 
we  must  continue  to  exercise,  till  we  receive  the  crown  of  life  which  is 
laid  up  for  us  in  heaven. 

From  this  subject  we  may, 

1.  See  the  evil  of  sin.  It  must  be  a  great  evil,  a  grievous  and  a 
bitter  thing,  when  it  required  such  a  sacrifice  —  such  sufferings  —  to 
make  an  atonement  for  its  commission.  For  if  God  had  given  more 
than  was  necessary,  it  would  have  been  as  unworthy  of  his  wisdom  as 
if  he  had  given  too  little.  If  God  gave  his  only-begotten  Son,  it  was 
absolutely  necessary  he  should  so  do,  in  order  that  we  might  "not  per- 
ish, but  have  everlasting  life." 

2.  See  the  value  of  the  soul.  Most  men  think  little  of  their  souls ; 
the  body  engrosses  all  their  care,  while  the  soul,  —  compared  with 
which  the  whole  world  is  but  as  a  grain  of  sand, — is  totally  neglected 
by  them.  Yea,  they  can  give  their  souls  to  the  devil,  with  both  hands, 
as  a  free-will  offering  !  "  The  redemption  of  the  soul  is  precious."  Go 
to  Bethlehem  !  visit  Calvary !  see  the  darkened  sun  —  the  rending 
rocks  —  the  opening  graves  —  convulsed  nature  !  and  in  the  sufferings 
of  the  incarnate  God,  discover  the  value  of  the  soul,  and  learn  to  say, 
"  What  is  a  man  profited,  if  he  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own 
soul  ?  or  what  shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul  ?  "  And  think, 
also,  what  is  all  that  you  can  do  for  the  bodies  of  your  fellow-creatures, 
in  comparison  with  saving  a  soiil  from  death ! 

3.  See  the  condemnation  of  sinners.  Notwithstandmg  all  that  God 
has  done,  the  mass  of  mankind  are  careless,  wicked,  depraved,  seeking 
death  in  the  error  of  their  ways.     And  are  there  none  here  who  are 

12 


f 


178  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

in  danger  of  perishing  ?  uf  perishing  amidst  the  blaze  of  light — amidst 
the  calls  of  mercy  —  amidst  the  displays  of  love  ?  These  men  rush 
on  the  loaded  artillery  of  heaven !  they  are  despising  the  overtures  of 
mercy,  levelling  the  mountains  -which  infinite  goodness  has  thrown  up 
to  prevent  their  ruin,  opposing  the  swelling  tide  of  divine  love,  which 
would  set  full  on  their  souls,  and,  with  lighted  torches  in  their  hands, 
forcing  their  way  to  eternal  ruin  !  Surely  theirs  will  not  be  ordinary 
pangs  !  If  those  who  hear  the  gospel  perish,  they  must,  as  it  were, 
take  hell  by  force,  and  be  lost,  spite  of  all  God's  love  could  do  to  pre- 
vent their  ruin  I  0  brethren,  privileged  as  we  are  in  reading  and 
hearing  this  truth — "  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only- 
begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but 
have  everlasting  life ; "  let  it  not  become  as  a  millstone  about  our 
necks,  to  drag  us  down  to  the  depths  of  perdition ! 

4.  See  the  encouragement  awarded  to  those  who  are  seeking  the  Lord 
—  those  who  are  weary  of  sin,  and  of  the  service  of  the  world,  the 
flesh,  and  Satan.  Like  the  prodigal,  they  are  come  to  themselves  ; 
they  are  alive  to  a  sense  of  their  condition.  Seeing  their  ingratitude, 
their  rebellion,  they  exclaim,  "  My  iniquities  are  more  in  number  than 
the  hairs  of  my  head  !  I  am  a  grievous  sinner !  I  am  unworthy  of  the 
least  of  all  God's  mercies  !  "  All  this  is  true,  very  true  ;  and  it  is  also 
true  that  God  loves  thee  —  loves  thee  with  a  love  of  pity  and  compas- 
sion —  and  is  not  willing  that  thou  shouldst  perish.  0  believe  the 
record  of  heaven  !  believe  the  record  that  God  has  given  of  his  Son  !  — 
believe  that  Christ  came  into  the  world  to  seek  and  save  the  lost  —  to 
save  sinners,  even  the  chief !  Receive  this  record  ;  cordially  grasp  it 
with  all  thy  soul.  Say,  "  It  is  worthy  of  all  acceptation  !  it  is  worthy 
of  my  acceptation  !  "  God  enable  thee  so  to  believe,  that  thy  soul 
may  live  for  ever ! 

5.  And  if  God  "  spared  not  his  own  Son,  but  delivered  him  up  for 
us  all,  how  shall  he  not  with  him  aho  freely  give  us  all  things  ?  "  He 
will  surely  give  an  answer  to  our  every  prayer,  and  supply  our  every 
need.  Let  us,  then,  honor  him  by  our  implicit  confidence.  "  My  God 
shall  supply  all  your  need,  according  to  his  riches  in  glory,  by  Christ 
Jesus."  From  this  love  let  believers  fully  expect  grace  here,  and 
glory  hereafter. 

6.  And  who  is  there  among  us  that  can  think  on  all  this  love,  and 
not  wish  to  make  suitable  returns  ?     Who  does  not  say, — 

"What  shall  I  do,  to  make  it  known 
What  thou  for  all  mankind  hast  done  ?  " 

Should  it  not  be  proclaimed  to  the  ends  of  the   earth  ?  and  should  it 
not  be  made  known  in  our  own  land  ?  and  that,  not  only  by  preaching 


god's  love  to  the  world.  179 

—  by  the  distribution  of  the  sacred  Scriptures  —  by  the  circulation  of 
religious  truth  ;  but  also  by  the  education  of  the  young  ?  It  has  been 
found  that  by  schools,  and  by  schools  on  the  Sabbath  day^  habits  of 
order  and  decency  have  been  induced,  the  most  valuable  instructions 
have  been  communicated,  and  a  powerful  influence  has  been  exerted  to 
save  souls  from  ruin.  These  schools  have  been  found  a  very  powerful 
engine  for  preventing  much  evil,  and  for  promoting  a  great  deal  of 
good.  They  have  been  in  use  for  half  a  century  ;  and  they  have  been 
greatly  increased  and  supported  by  the  liberality  of  Christians.  This 
is  a  strong  proof  that  they  have  been,  and  are,  useful ;  were  it  other- 
wise, they  would  not  be  so  supported.  One  object  we  have  now  in 
view,  is  to  promote  the  interests  of  a  Sunday  school  in  connexion  with 
this  chapel.  It  was  established  in  the  year  1791 ;  the  year  in  which 
the  venerable  John  Wesley  died.  Since  that  period  14,731  children 
have  passed  through  its  instructions.  They  have  received  the  light  of 
knowledge,  and  some  of  them  the  light  of  life  ;  some  have  gone  from 
this  world,  after  having  brought  forth  fruit  to  the  honor  of  God  on 
earth  ;  and  others  are  still  walking  upon  earth,  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord, 
and  the  comforts  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  When  it  is  considered  that  this 
has  taken  place  in  the  dense  and  dark  population  of  Spitalfields,  we 
think  it  will  be  duly  appreciated.  There  are  350  children  at  present 
in  the  school.  When  we  think  on  the  length  of  time  this  school  has 
been  instituted ;  on  the  many  children  who  have  passed  through  its 
instructions  ;  on  the  number  of  pious  and  intelligent  persons  who  have 
been  engaged  in  this  work,  some  of  whom  are,  perhaps,  bending  from 
their  lofty  thrones  on  the  present  occasion,  to  see  how  the  recital  of  the 
Redeemer's  dying  love  influences  your  minds  in  reference  to  the  sup- 
port of  this  school ;  —  we  cannot  but  hope  that  you  will  render  it  all 
the  assistance  in  your  power.  God  has  loved  you  :  he  has  proved  his 
kindness  to  you  in  ten  thousand  instances,  as  to  your  own  persons,  your 
substance,  your  famihes,  your  friends.  And  see  what  he  has  brought 
you  through ;  and  how  bright  he  has  made  your  prospects  for  another 
world.  Surely  you  are  saying  —  "  What  shall  I  render  to  the  Lord 
for  all  his  mercies  ?  "  "VYhat  ?  why  render  love  —  love  for  love.  God 
has  loved  you,  and  he  requires  your  love  in  return.  He  addresses  you 
as  he  did  his  servant  formerly,  and  he  addresses  you  personally,  and 
he  addresses  himself  to  your  hearts  —  "  Lovest  thou  me  ?  "  And  if 
you  say,  "  Lord,  thou  knowest  that  I  love  thee  !  "  he  replies,  "  Feed 
my  lambsy  Some  of  these  children,  it  may  be,  are  bereaved  of  their 
parents :  they  are  almost  outcasts  of  the  world  ;  but  they  are  the  ten- 
derlings of  Christ's  flock :  he  calls  them  to  himself ;  he  bears  them  in 
his  bosom  ;  he  intends  to  bless  them  ;  —  but  he  honors  his  servants,  by 


180  THE    ENGLISH   PULPIT, 

allowing  them  to  take  these  lambs  under  their  care.  K  you  regard 
his  authority,  if  you  have  tasted  of  his  love,  attend  to  his  injunction, 
and  return  the  love  whei-ewith  he  has  loved  you,  by  feeding  his  lambs. 
Supply  their  minds  with  knowledge  ;  make  them  acquainted  with  his 
truth  and  guardianship  ;  and  do  all  that  is  needful  to  support  those 
schools,  which  profess  to  accomplish  this  great  object.  And  what  you 
do,  diO  from  a  principle  of  love  to  Christ ;  doit,  also,  out  of  love  to 
your  fellow-creatures,  and  an  earnest  desire  for  the  welfare  of  posterity. 
And  what  you  do,  do  it  with  all  your  hearts,  and  with  all  your  might. 
"  God  will  not  be  unrighteous,  to  forget  your  work  and  labor  of  love  ;" 
and  you  shall  receive  from  him  happiness  here,  and  hfe  everlasting ! 


SEEMON  XY. 

THE     SPIRITUAL     BUILDING 


BY  EEV.  ISAIAH  BIRT. 
"In  whom  ye  also  are  builded  together  for  an  habitation  of  God  through  the  Spirit. — Efhesi&ivs  ii.  22. 

The  gospel  ministry,  in  all  its  departments,  is  conducted  on  the  same 
principles.  Whether  it  be  stationary  or  itinerant ;  whether  it  be  pas- 
toral or  missionary;  —  these  principles  are  ever  the  same.  These 
principles  are  very  few,  but  very  important.  They  relate  to  all  men 
—  to  all  without  distinction,  whether  Jew  or  Gentile,  bond  or  free, 
kings  or  subjects  ;  —  they  consider  all  as  far  from  God  ;  that  the  whole 
world  "  lieth  in  wickedness  ;  "  that  "  there  is  none  righteous,  no  not 
one."  This  is  the  first  principle  of  a  gospel  ministry  ;  it  contemplates 
every  man  as  a  sinner,  exposed  to  wrath  and  indignation.  These  prin- 
ciples relate  to  Jesus  Christ  also.  This  ministry  exhibits  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  in  his  person,  his  offices,, and  his  works,  as  the  great,  the 
only  Redeemer,  appointed  for  salvation  by  God,  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth.  We  must  also  consider  the  ministry  of  the  gospel  as  relating 
to  the  means,  under  divine  influence,  hy  which  a  church  is  to  he  formed 
out  of  this  world,  set  apart  for  the  worship  and  service  of  God  upon 
earth,  and  finally  to  be  made  like  him,  and  be  with  him,  and  enjoy  him 
for  ever. 

These  principles  are  ever  exhibited  in  the  ministry  of  the  gospel. — 
And  in  order  to  confine  them  in  our  view,  the  church  of  God  is  repre- 


THE   SPIRITUAL   BUILDING.  181 

sented  under  a  variety  of  similitudes.  Sometimes  it  is  considered  as 
a  sheep-fold ;  and  the  sheep  are  gathered  by  his  care,  watched  over, 
provided  for,  and  blessed  for  ever.  In  the  words  before  us,  it  is  rep- 
resented under  the  idea  of  a  building.  "  Now  therefore,"  it  is  said  to 
the  Gentiles,  who  were  once  considered  as  diflferent  from  the  Jews  ; — 
"  now  therefore  ye  are  no  more  strangers  and  foreigners,  but  fellow- 
citizens  with  the  saints,  and  of  the  household  of  God  ;  and  are  built 
upon  the  foundation  of  the  apostles  and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself 
being  the  chief  corner-stone  ;  in  whom  all  the  building  fitly  framed 
together  groweth  into  an  holy  temple  in  the  Lord ;  in  whom  we  also," 
both  Jews  and  Gentiles,  "  are  builded  together  for  an  habitation  of  God 
through  the  Spirit."  Seeking  the  divine  blessing  and  assistance,  we 
will  employ  ourselves  this  evening  in  contemplating  the  church  under 
the  idea  which  is  given  in  the  text,  as  "  builded  together  in  Christ  for 
an  habitation  of  God  through  the  Spirit."  We  will,  first,  take  notice 
of  the  materials  of  this  building  ;  then,  we  will  attend  to  its  basis  and 
plan ;  thirdly,  we  will  contemplate  the  instruments  and  agency  employed 
in  its  construction  ;  we  will  next  consider  the  end  to  be  accomplished 
in  its  erection;  SiYidfinaUy,  we  will  return  to  ourselves,  and  endeavor 
to  enforce  on  our  own  hearts  what  is  important  in  connexion  with  the 
words  of  the  text.  And  0  that  we  may  be  blessed  of  God,  and  that 
it  may  be  the  mercy  of  every  one  present  to  be  united  to  the  church 
here,  and  to  share  in  its  glories  hereafter  ! 

I.  Let  us  contemplate  the  materials  of  this  building, 

1.  1)1  their  nature  1  They  are  of  a  very  superior  order.  In  all 
buildings  there  are  some  materials  which  are  comparatively  insignifi- 
cant, some  unimportant,  some  unsightly.  But  if  we  examine  Scrip- 
ture, in  reference  to  the  materials  of  this  building,  we  shall  fin'd  that 
it  selects  the  most  precious  materials, —  gold,  and  silver,  and  precious 
stones,  on  which  men  set  such  a  high  value.  And  yet  all  these  images 
fall  short ;  gold,  and  silver,  and  precious  stones,  are  not  worthy  consid- 
eration, when  compared  with  human  souls  —  with  the  children  of  men 
—  the  sons  and  daughters  of  Adam,  If  we  consider  man  in  reference 
to  the  eternal  world,  he  is  a  being  of  a  superior  order.  If  we  regard 
him  in  relation  to  angels,  he  is,  in  many  respects,  similar,  and  is  capa- 
ble of  sharing  in  their  enjoyments  and  delights.  If  we  contemplate 
him  in  reference  to  God  himself,  we  see  him  fonned  for  intimate  com- 
munion with  him.  You  can  find  no  being  superior  to  man,  except 
angels ;  and  indeed,  when  we  come  to  be  united  to  the  church,  we  are 
said  to  come  "  to  an  innumerable  company  of  angels ;  "  and  when,  in  the 
Revelation,  John  tells  us  of  the  glories  of  the  celestial  city,  we  find 


182        .  THE    ENGLISH    PULPIT. 

that  "  all  the  angels  stood  round  about  the  throne  ;  "  and  when  redeem- 
ed men  from  every  part  of  the  world  uttered  their  ascriptions  of  praise 
and  thanksgiving  to  God  and  the  Lamb,  for  the  blessings  of  redem2> 
tion,  we  find  the  angels  united  with  them,  as  though  they  w^ere  but  one 
company,  —  united  with  them  in  their  acclamations  —  and  added  a 
hearty  "Amen"  to  their  sublime  doxologies.  Contemplate  these 
materials, 

2.  In  their  diversity.  There  is  a  great  diversity  in  every  building. 
If  we  were  to  examine  the  building  in  which  we  are  now  assembled, 
we  should  find  in  it  a  great  variety  of  materials  of  a  very  reverse 
description.  So  it  is  in  this  building  of  God ;  it  is  composed  of  per- 
sons of  every  possible  variety ;  "  of  every  nation,  and  kindred,  and 
tongue."  Scripture  does  not  confine  the  blessings  of  the  gospel  to 
any  one  class  —  to  monarchs,  or  to  the  poor  only ;  but  when  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  celestial  city  were  shown  to  John,  he  was  informed  that 
they  comprehended  persons  of  all  descriptions  —  kmgs  and  their  sub- 
jects, bond  and  free,  Jews  and  Gentiles,  and  even  slaves.  For  the 
distinctions  which  prevail,  and  properly  prevail,  amongst  men,  have  no 
place  in  heaven  whatever.  No  ;  it  is  man  —  man  in  his  sinfulness  — 
man  in  his  spiritual,  his  undying  nature  — man  in  the  endless  diversi- 
ties of  his  earthly  condition,  —  that  is  contemplated  by  the  gospel.  No 
man  can  stand  and  survey  this  building  as  it  rises,  and  say,  ."  I  can 
never  become  a  part  of  that  building ;  I  am  so  dry  a  tree,  that  I  can 
never  be  cut  and  fitted  ;  I  am  so  rough  a  stone  that  I  can  never  be 
squared  and  polished  !  "  No  ;  all  may  be  made  fit.  Even  amongst 
the  angels  Ave  find  a  great  diversity ;  for  we  read  of  "  thrones,  domin- 
ions, principalities,  and  powers  ;  "  and  these  angels  all  join  to  form  a 
part  of  this  glorious  building.     Contemplate  these  materials, 

3.  In  their  number.  This  is  exceeding  great.  John  tells  us'  that 
he  saw  "  a  great  multitude  which  no  man  could  number."  0  how 
pleasing  is  the  consideration  !  When  we  considered  their  diversity,  this 
was  pleasing  ;  this  led  us  to  entertain  hope  as  to  all  our  fellow-men  ; 
but  here  is  number  also  —  agreat  number  —  "  a  great,  an  innumerable 
multitude,  out  of  all  nations,  and  kindred,  and  people,  and  tongues." 
God  has  done  much  more  in  this  respect  than  we  are  aware  of,  or  are 
sometimes  willing  to  allow.  We  are  ready  to  suppose,  as  Elijah,  that 
there  are  very  few  who  serve  God  ;  whereas,  God  had,  at  that  very 
period,  "  reserved  to  himself  seven  thousand  men  who  had  not  bowed 
the  knee  to  the  image  of  Baal."  There  are  multitudes  we  know  not 
of,  who  are  preparing  for  glory,  for  honor,  for  eternal  life.  "  In  my 
Father's  house,"  said  the  Savior,  "  are  many  mansions  ;  "  and  multi- 
tudes out  of  every  nation  —  multitudes  which  no  human  power  can 


THE   SPIRITUAL  BUILDING.  183 

calculate, —  \y\\\  be  collected  to  inhabit  them.  The  principles  which 
men  have  adopted  to  limit  their  views  of  the  number  of  the  redeemed, 
appear  to  me  as  calculated  to  expand  our  ideas  considerably  ;  they  are 
the  choice  of  the  God  of  love,  the  purchase  of  the  benevolent  Redeem- 
er, and  they  are  an  exceeding  great  number.     Contemplate  them  also, 

4.  In  their  circumstances.  These  are  very  unpropitious.  The 
angels,  who  are  to  become  a  part  in  this  building,  are  all  prepared  and 
fitted  for  their  places ;  but  men  —  they  are  like  the  trees  in  the  forest, 
or  the  stones  m  the  quarry,  or  the  ore  in  the  mine.  The  trees  must 
be  felled  and  squared  ;  the  stones  must  be  dug  out  and  polished ;  the 
ore  must  be  brought  out  and  purified,  before  it  can  be  ready  to  form 
any  part  of  this  building.     And  then  contemplate  these  materials, 

5.  In  their  value.  And  can  you  estimate  this  ?  It  is  impossible  ; 
it  is  like  thinking  of  space,  or  of  God  himself.  Christ  has  given  us 
some  idea  of  their  value,  when  he  said,  "  What  is  a  man  profited  if  he 
gain  the  whole  world,  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?  or  what  shall  a  man  give 
in  exchange  for  his  soul  ?  "  One  soul  —  the  soul  of  the  poorest  man 
—  the  soul  of  a  poor  negro  slave  —  one  soul  —  is  of  more  value  than 
the  world  !  But  if  one  soul  be  so  valuable,  how  shall  we  estimate  the 
value  of  the  vast  mass  of  mind  which  goes  to  compose  the  church  of  the 
living  God  ?  What  is  gold  and  silver  ?  what  are  precious  stones  ?  — 
what  shall  we  put  in  competition  with  human  souls  ?  with  these  minds — 
these  minds  capable  of  feeling,  of  thought,  of  suffering,  of  joy  ?  And 
when  we  add  to  this,  eternal  duration  —  an  eternal  duration  in  joy  or 
in  suffering,  O  how  immense  is  the  value  of  immortal  souls  !  None 
but  Jesus  Christ  can  estimate  the  value  of  these  materials  —  the  value 
of  immortal  souls. 

II.  Let  us  attend  to  the  basis  on  which  it  rests,  and  the 

PLAN   ON  WHICH  IT  IS  CONDUCTED. 

1.  There  have  been  experiments  made  by  angelic  and  by  human 
minds,  but  they  have  both  failed.  Angels  were  tried  in  heaven,  and 
they  failed  ;  7nan  was  tried  under  most  propitious  circumstances  on 
earth,  but  he  failed  ;  the  foundation  which  might  have  been  supposed 
to  have  stood,  failed,  and  the  building  came  down.  But  what  is  the 
foundation  on  which  this  building  rests  ?  Ah,  you  anticipate  me  here  I 
It  is  Christ ;  it  is  Christ  himself ;  Jesus  Christ  is  the  chief  corner-stone. 
As  it  is  said  in  Isaiah,  "  Behold,  I  lay  in  Zion  for  a  foundation,  a  stone, 
a  tried  stone,  a  precious  corner-stone,  a  sure  foundation."  And,  says 
Paul,  "  As  a  wise  master-builder,  I  have  laid  the  foundation  ;  and  other 
foundation  can  no  man  lay  than  that  is  laid,  which  is  Jesus  Christ." 
This,  then,  is  the  base  of  this  building  ;  on  his  person,  on  his  work,  on 


18^  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

his  mediation,  on  his  sufferings,  on  his  exaltation,  on  his  government, 
—  the  -whole  building  rests.  If  he  fall,  the  structure  for  ever  falls  ; 
none  can  raise,  none  can  sustain  it,  but  he  !  This  is  the  base  —  the 
most  important  part ;  this  is  the  foundation  which  God  has  laid  in  Zion. 
Now  here  Jesus  Christ  appears  to  us  under  the  idea  of  correspon- 
dence. There  is  in  him  that  which  is  most  suitable  for  this  important 
purpose.  He  is  said  to  be  "head  of  all  principalities  and  powers ;" 
but  little  is  said,  it  is  true,  of  ayigels  ;  and  yet  we  are  given  to  under- 
stand that  he  is  their  head  and  support.  But  he  is  intimately  allied  to 
us  ;  he  is  "  bone  of  our  bone,  and  flesh  of  our  flesh."  He  has  done 
all  that  is  necessary  for  our  salvation :  he  has  died  for  our  transgres- 
sions ;  he  has  brought  in  for  us  an  everlasting  righteousness  ;  he  has 
risen  to  heavenly  glory ;  he  is  seated  at  the  right  hand  of  his  heavenly 
Father  ;  and  he  is  now  carrying  on  the  blessed  work.  And  he  is  capa- 
ble of  supporting  all  this  vast  concern  ;  for  Paul  says,  "  In  him  dwell- 
eth  all  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead  bodily."  There  is  a  correspondence 
therefore,  between  the  work  and  his  character.  Were  he  man,  he  might 
fear  a  giving  way  of  this  building  ;  for  even  angels  in  heaven  were  not 
able  to  stand.  But  when  we  consider  that  the  fulness  of  the  Godhead 
is  in  him,  and  that  he  is  "  Jesus  Christ,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day, 
and  for  ever,"  we  see  in  his  merit,  and  in  his  perpetual  existence,  a 
sure  foundation  for  the  confidence  and  salvation  of  all  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  men.  From  age  to  generation,  the  materials  have  all 
been  brought  here,  and  here  they  have  rested. 

2.  Christ  is  not  only  the  basis  — he  is  also  spoken  of  as  the  chief 
corner-stone.  Not  only  do  all  the  parts  rest  upon  him  ;  but  in  him  they 
are  all  united  ;  —  m  him  they  are  all  united  to  each  other,  to  the  holy 
angels,  to  himself,  and  to  the  Divine  Father ;  all  are  one  in  him.  God 
never  could,  I  was  about  to  say  —  it  is  certain  God  never  has  met  with 
man,  but  in  Christ ;  it  is  here  men  and  Christ  meet,  and  it  is  here  men 
and  men  meet  in  harmony  as  one.  We  are  ready  to  suppose  that  the 
church  may  be  formed  under  this  or  that  denomination,  or  according  to 
this  or  that  creed.  No,  no  ;  these  never  unite  hearts  and  souls  togeth- 
er ;  these  never  unite  man  to  God,  nor  man  to  man ;  but  let  men  come 
to  Christ ;  let  them  be  one  with  him  ;  and  then  they  are  united  to  God, 
and  united  to  the  whole  church. 

3.  Christ  is  not  only  the  basis  and  the  union  of  this  building,  but 
the  lohole  hidlding  is  constructed  hy  him.  All  the  lines  are  drawn  from 
him,  from  his  dignity,  from  his  glory.  In  the  preceding  verse  we  read, 
"  In  whom  all  the  building  fitly  framed  together  groweth  unto  an  holy 
temple  in  the  Lord :  in  whom  ye  also  are  builded  together  for  an  habi- 
tation of  God  through  the  Spirit."     The  building  will  partake  of  the 


THE    SPIRITUAL   BUILDING.  185 

character  of  the  foundation ;  it  will  not  be  a  grand  and  noble  founda- 
tion, with  a  small  and  insignificant  structure  erected  upon  it.  When 
we  consider  the  person  of  Christ ;  his  work  ;  his  groans,  and  tears,  and 
sufierings,  and  death ;  his  glory,  and  his  power ;  and  when  we  call  to 
mind  that  he  is  heir  of  all  things,  and  head  over  all ;  —  we  may  rest 
assured  that  the  building  shall  be  noble,  extensive,  and  grand. 

4.  The  excellencies  of  Christ  will  he  the  beauty  of  the  building. 
The  church  is  built  in  him ;  Christians  are  all  lively  stones,  and  he 
lives  in  them  and  through  them.  He  is  not  only  the  foundation  on 
which  the  church  rests,  and  the  corner-stone  by  which  it  is  united,  and 
the  pattern  according  to  which  it  is  framed  ;  but  "  the  head-stone  of  the 
corner,"  the  crown,  the  ornament  of  the  whole.  The  beauties  and 
excellencies  of  the  Savior  will  appear  in  all  his  church.  When  he  comes 
in  glory,  it  will  be  "  to  be  admired  in  his  saints,  and  to  be  glorified  in 
them  that  believe."  When  the  whole  work  is  completed,  all  will  be 
glorious,  and  beautiful,  and  excellent ;  and  he  will  appear  the  chief 
beauty,  and  glory,  and  excellency  of  all. 

III.  Let  us  consider  the  instruments  and  agency  by  which 

THIS  BUILDING  IS  CONSTRUCTED  AND  CARRIED  ON. 

There  is  something  very  sweet  and  interesting  in  the  contemplation 
of  this  work  ;  especially  when  we  feel  that  we  have  an  interest  in  it 
ourselves. 

How  extensive  is  this  work  !  It  is  carrying  on  in  Europe,  in  Asia, 
in  Africa,  in  America  ;  and  it  is  carrying  on  in  the  celestial  world  also. 
Does  it  not  immediately  strike  you  that  it  requires  a  iiniversal presence? 
an  agent  that  must  be  present  everywhere,  both  in  earth  and  heaven, 
in  order  to  carry  it  on  ? 

Sow  arduous  is  this  ivorh!  It  is  a  work  of  most  astonishing  labor 
and  engagements.  To  gather  in  all  the  materials  for  this  building, 
however  scattered,  and  to  adjust  them  all,  however  rough  and  unfit;  0, 
this  is  a  great  work  !  When  the  far-famed  Jewish  temple  was  to  be 
erected,  Solomon  was  employed  in  the  work  ;  and  he  was  endued  with 
astonishing  wisdom,  with  great  pqwer,  and  with  extensive  riches,  for  its 
accomplishment.  But  0,  what  wisdom,  what  power,  what  resources, 
are  required  to  collect  and  adjust  the  materials  of  this  building  !  But 
the  time  would  fail  me  to  enumerate  the  difiicultics  of  this  work.  0, 
when  we  consider  what  is  in  each  of  our  poor  wicked  hearts ;  and  the 
influence  of  the  world;  and  the  subtlety  of  Satan; — we  may  well 
conceive  that  it  requires  no  less  than  a  creative  power  ;  not  wisdom  and 
power  in  an  ordinary  ratio  ;  not  a  power  and  wisdom  to  collect  materi- 


186  THE    ENGLISH   PCLPIT. 

als  already  fitted  and  prepared  ;  but  a  creative  power  to  make  all 
things  anew. 

Think  of  the  time  required  to  carry  on  this  work.  It  has  been  going 
on  from  the  first  periods  of  time,  through  all  succeeding  ages  and  gen- 
erations, to  the  present ;  and  it  shall  be  continued  as  long  as  time  shall 
last.  Men  have  been  very  busilj  employed ;  they  have  been  born,  and 
lived,  and  flourished,  and  died.  Thrones  have  been  set  up  and  cast 
down.  Empires  have  been  formed,  have  arrived  at  the  zenith  of  their 
glor}',  and  have  disappeared.  But  this  work  has  been  going  on  from 
generation  to  generation,  and  the  last  stone  shall  liot  be  brought  forth 
till  the  last  moment  of  time.  There  is,  therefore,  a  perpetual  agency 
required.  In  this  work  patriarchs  and  prophets,  apostles  and  martyrs, 
kings  and  their  subjects,  the  learned  and  the  powerful,  the  wise  and  the 
good,  have  been  variously  employed  ;  but  they  were  merely  instruments  ; 
they  were  called  to  their  day's  work,  and  then  taken  to  their  reward. 
Stupendous  providences,  also,  have  been  employed ;  but  these  have 
only  been  as  means  ;  and  these  were  laid  aside  when  they  had  accom- 
plished their  design.  But  this  great  agent,  he  works  from  first  to  last, 
without  relaxation,  without  intermission. 

This  is  the  agent  pointed  out  in  the  text ;  the  Holy  Spirit ;  the  wise, 
the  almighty,  the  omnipresent,  the  infinite,  the  eternal  Spirit ;  an  agent 
that  ever  lives,  and  ever  works.  "  Not  by  might,  nor  by  power,  but 
by  my  Spirit,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts."  He  is  the  great  agent ;  instru- 
ments are  used  and  laid  aside  ;  providences  are  employed  and  overruled ; 
but  he  is  the  great  agent  who  worketh  all  in  all.     And, 

IV.  Let  us  notice  the  design  to  be  accomplished   in  this 

WORK. 

It  is  "  for  an  habitation  of  God."  What  was  the  design  of  the 
erection  of  the  Jewish  tabernacle  in  the  wilderness  ?  It  was  to  be 
God's  residence ;  there  the  Shechinah  was  to  be  placed ;  —  and  so  it 
was  intended  with  respect  to  the  temple  which  was  afterwards  built  by 
Solomon.  But  these  were  only  symbols,  types,  shadows  ;  this  is  ike 
temple,  the  habitation  of  God,  where  he  will  dwell.  This  is  the  taber- 
nacle, the  temple,  the  Zion,  of  which  God  has  said,  "  This  is  my  rest 
for  ever ;  here  will  I  dwell ;  for  I  have  desired  it."  But  how  shall  we 
speak  aright  of  this  ?  "  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be  ;  "  we 
may  think  of  all  that  is  good,  and  great,  and  blessed,  and  give  it  the 
happiest  expression  ;  and  when  we  have  done  all  that  we  can,  we  are 
still  at  the  threshold  ;  we  are  still  compelled  to  say,  "  It  doth  not  yet 
appear  what  we  shall  be."     We  may,  however,  say  something, 

1.  As  to  its  perfection.     This  habitation  of  God  will  display  the 


THE    SPIRITUAL   BUILDING.  187 

utmost  perfection  ;  nothing  that  is  polluted  shall  enter  into  it.  It  was 
said  of  God's  earthl}^  temple,  that  it  was  "  the  holy  place,  the  taberna- 
cle of  the  Most  High  ; "  it  was  the  abode  of  Deity.  This  gives  us 
an  idea  of  the  most  perfect  purity.  A  just  idea  of  God's  earthly  tem- 
ple leads  the  saints  to  say,  "  A  day  in  thy  courts,  with  all  our  imper- 
fections, is  better  than  a  thousand  spent  elsewhere."  0  then  what  will 
be  the  place  where  the  blessed  God  dwells ;  the  tabernacle  which  he 
makes  his  eternal  abode  ?  Nothing  that  is  impure,  nothing  that  defil- 
eth,  can  enter  there.     The  words  of  the  text  convey  an  idea  also, 

2.  As  to  its  vast  extent.  Have  you  ever  considered  what  the  Apos- 
tle says, —  "  He  hath  put  all  things  under  his  feet,  and  gave  him  to  be 
head  over  all  things  to  the  church,  Avhich  is  his  body  ; "  then  mark  "  the 
fulness  of  him  tliat  filleth  all  in  alW^  0,  what  wonderful  ideas  does 
this  language  convey  to  our  minds !  Tliis  habitation  will  not  only  be 
holy  and  pure,  but  of  vast  extent.  "  The  fulness  of  him  that  filleth  all 
in  all."     0,  this  infinitely  surpasses  all  our  ideas. 

3.  It  shall  be  holy  and  exquisite  love.  All  will  be  alike,  when 
brought  to  form  parts  of  this  habitation  of  God.  There  will  not  be 
two  different  principles  —  two  creeds  —  two  parties  —  two  feelings  ; 
no  ;  all  souls,  all  sentiments,  all  feelings,  all  hearts,  will  be  alike.  Saints 
and  angels  all  uniting  and  united  ;  united  in  bonds  most  sacred,  most 
blessed,  most  endearing,  most  perfect.  There  will  be  all  that  can  unite 
the  thoughts  and  the  heart,  all  that  can  endear  the  affections.  All  will 
be  brethren,  and  amidst  them  all  the  Son  of  God,  "  the  first-born  among 
many  brethren  ; "  he  will  have  "  the  pre- eminence ; "  but  it  will  be  the 
pre-eminence  of  a  brother  and  a  friend.  And,  0,  say,  what  will  be 
the  blessedness  of  such  a  state  of  mind,  of  such  a  state  of  feehng,  of 
such  a  state  of  holy,  of  blessed  love  ! 

4.  A  state  of  supreme  delight  also.  We  can  form  but  little  idea 
of  delight  in  the  present  state  ;  our  delights  are  chiefly  either  from 
recollection,  or  from  anticipation.  The  flame  of  delight  is  but  weak 
and  languid  at  the  best,  while  we  are  on  earth  ;  but  in  the  temple  of 
God  it  will  burn  with  a  full  and  steady  flame.  There  the  great  Father 
of  all  will  contemplate  all  his  designs  completely  fulfilled ;  every  obsta- 
cle to  the  manifestation  of  his  kindness  will  be  for  ever  removed  ;  and 
all  his  heart  will  be  continually  overflowing  to  his  creatures !  He  will 
bring  all  his  fulness  to  bear  upon  their  souls  to  render  their  bliss  com- 
plete, while  all  that  is  contrary  to  their  happiness,  and  bliss  shall  be 
entirely  done  away.  Then  the  blessed  Redeemer  shall  "  see  of  the  tra- 
vail of  his  soul,  and  be  satisfied  ; "  all  the  fruit  of  his  toil  shall  be 
gathered  ;  all  his  children  shall  be  brought  home,  and  he  shall  receive 
his  full  reward  !     He  remembers  Calvary,  in  all  the  blessedness  and 


188  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

glory  connected  with  it ;  he  is  filled  with  sacred  delight,  and  all  his 
people  share  it  with  him.  And  what  shall  we  say  of  tlie  saints  them- 
selves ? 

"  O  the  delights,  the  heavenly  joye, 

The  glories  of"  the  place,  ' 

Where  Jesus  sheds  the  brightest  beams 

Of  his  o'erflowing  grace  I  " 

Ah,  shall  I  be  there  ?  Ah,  my  friends,  will  you  be  there  ?  0,  what 
a  full  tide  of  joy  will  pour  into  the  souls  of  the  saints,  when  the  joy 
of  each  in  this  vast  multitude  will  contribute  to  the  joy  of  all !  For 
there  will  be  no  selfish  feeling  ;  the  delight  is  a  common  stock  ;  the  joy 
of  one  will  be  the  joy  of  all,  and  the  joy  of  all  is  the  joy  of  each  indi- 
vidual. Each  one  will  say,  "  This  God  is  our  God  for  ever  and  ever  ! 
This  Lord  is  our  Lord  for  ever  and  ever !  "  With  what  feelings  shall 
we  remember  our  trials  and  difficulties  here,  and  praise  the  love  that 
has  brought  us  safely  through  !  This  will  be  delight  infinitely  beyond 
the  best  that  we  ever  formed  any  idea  of.  Like  the  Queen  of  Sheba, 
we  shall  say,  "  the  half  was  not  told  us  —  the  thousandth  part  was  not 
told  us  ;  "  it  will  be  beyond  our  warmest  wishes,  and  infinitely  surpass 
our  most  fervent  prayers. 

5.  It  will  be  a  state,  a  presentation  of  the  most  unspeakable  glory. 
What  is  said  by  the  beloved  disciple  ?  "  I,  John,  saw  the  holy  city, 
new  Jerusalem,  coming  down  from  God  out  of  heaven,  prepared  as  a 
bride  adorned  for  her  husband.  And  I  heard  a  great  voice  out  of 
heaven,  sajing.  Behold,  the  tabernacle  of  God  is  with  man,  and  he 
will  dwell  with  them,  and  they  shall  be  his  people,  and  God  himself 
shall  be  with  them  and  be  their  God."  — "  And  the  city  had  no  need  of 
the  sun,  neither  of  the  moon  to  shine  in  it :  for  the  glory  of  God  did 
lighten  it,  and  the  Lamb  is  the  light  thereof."  0,  the  ineffable  glory 
,and  blessedness  which  is  to  attend  the  consummation  of  the  union 
which  is  now  formed  between  Christians  and  their  blessed  Lord  ! 

V.  Let  us  conclude  the  subject  with  a  few  reflections. 

We  must  not  dismiss  the  subject  without  these.  I  have,  in  part, 
anticipated  them,  it  is  true ;  but  it  is  worth  having  a  second,  and  a 
third,  and  a  fourth,  and  a  continual  impression  of  them  upon  our 
minds. 

1.  Have  we  been  saved?  Have  we  been  dehvered  from  the  world? 
Have  we  been  built  on  Jesus  Christ  ?  Has  the  gospel  produced  any 
effect  upon  our  minds  ?  Is  there  any  evidence  that  Christ  is  our 
foundation  ?  Have  we  come  as  sinners  to  build  upon  him  ?  Ah,  my 
friends  !  these  are  questions  of  the  first  importance  ;  and  a  period  will 


THE   SPIRITUAL   BUILDING.  189 

arrive,  in  your  experience,  and  in  mine,  when  these  questions  will  put 
all  others  in  the  shade.  When  we  come  to  death  —  and  we  are  coming 
to  it,  and  coming  nearer  and  nearer  to  it  every  day  —  and  when  the 
judgment>seat  and  eternity,  with  all  its  realities,  bursts  upon  us ;  these 
will  be  questions  of  the  very  highest  consideration.  0,  be  concerned 
to  be  partakers  of  Christ,  and  aim  to  be  built  upon  him !  He  is  the 
only  refuge,  the  only  foundation  of  security  and  salvation. 

"  None  but  Jesus 
Can  do  helpless  sinners  good." 

There  is  "  no  other  name  under  heaven  whereby  we  must  be  saved." 
Let  this  inquiry  be  carried  home  to  our  hearts,  and  let  the  effect  of  it 
enter  into  our  lives.     It  will  be  sure  to  come  to  us  at  some  period,  — 

0  let  it  come  NOW ! 

2.  As  Crod  honors  human  instrumentality  in  carrying  on  this  blessed 
building,  how  concerned  shoidd  we  all  he  to  he  employed  in  it !  Let  each 
say,  "  Lord,  what  wouldst  thou  have  me  to  do  in  this  blessed  work  ? " 
If  there  be  a  possibility  of  one  arriving  at  that  state  of  blessedness, 
and  then  saying  —  "  In  yonder  great  world,  where  I  lived  for  many 
years,  I  never  did  any  thing,  I  never  gave  any  thing  towards  the  car- 
rying on  that  glorious  building,  which  is  now  the  joy,  the  admiration 
of  all !  While  the  servants  of  Christ  were  employed  in  the  most  labo- 
rious exertions,  I  never  did  any  thing ;  while  they  made  the  greatest 
sacrifices,  I  never  gave  any  thing  ;  while  they  united  all  their  energies, 

1  bad  no  hand  whatever  in  the  work !  "  0,  if  it  be  possible  for  shame 
to  come  across  the  cheek  of  a  redeemed  man,  how  would  he  then 
blush  !  0  let  us,  and  especially  those  who  have  the  blossoms  of  the 
grave  upon  us,  let  us  employ  our  time,  our  talents,  our  all,  in  this 
work.  We  are  all  called  to  do  something  —  to  carry  stones  or  timber 
to  the  building,  to  dig  stones  out  of  the  quarry,  or  to  hew  and  square 
the  wood.  I  might  heg  of  you  this  evening,  but  I  will  not.  Read  the 
text,  and  meditate  upon  what  is  connected  with  it ;  and  then  witlihold, 
if  you  can,  if  you  dare,  all  that  this  great  and  good  cause  claims  at 
your  hands. 

3.  It  shoidd  he  our  concern  to  live,  and  labor,  and  die,  fully  assured 
of  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  glory  of  the  church.  Amidst  all  the 
trials  of  this  militant  state,  amidst  all  the  ravages  of  death  and  the 
grave,  and  amidst  all  the  ruins  and  convulsions  of  the  world,  the  church 
of  Christ  shall  stand.  Nothing  shall  ever  be  able  to  cast  it  down. 
For  the  divine  honor,  for  angels'  joy,  for  man's  good,  it  shall  stand,  — 
for  men,  for  angels,  for  God,  for  ever  and  ever !     Amen. 


SERMON    XVI. 

OPPOSITION     TO     CHRIST. 

BY    REV.    W.    JAY. 

"  He  that  is  not  with  me  is  against  me," — Matthew  xii.  30. 

My  brethren,  the  ministers  of  the  gospel  are  liable  to  many  reflec- 
tions, and  they  are  not  always  of  the  same  character  ;  yea,  some  of 
them  seem  perfectly  opposite  to  others.  Sometimes  they  are  censured 
for  being  too  lax  in  their  preaching ;  and  when  they  proclaim  the 
unsearchable  riches  of  Christ,  and  the  efficacy  of  his  blood  as  together 
able  to  cleanse  from  all  sin,  and  the  glory  of  his  righteousness  as  able 
to  justify  the  ungodly,  and  invite  all,  even  the  chief  of  sinners,  to 
come  to  him  as  they  are,  and  to  be  blessed  with  all  spiritual  blessings 
in  him — oh!  this  13  dangerous ;  this  is  licentiousness;  and  these,  if 
they  are  not  uiigodly  men,  are  deluded  men,  who  turn  the  grace  of 
God  into  licentiousness,  and  teach  their  hearers  to  "  sin,  that  grace 
may  abound." 

Then,  on  the  other  side,  they  are  condemned  as  being  too  strict,  too 
severe  ;  and  when  they  require  persons  to  deny  themselves  and  take 
up  their  cross  and  follow  the  Savior,  and  to  crucify  the  flesh,  with  its 
affections  and  lusts,  and  to  mortify  the  deeds  of  the  body,  and  to 
become  not  only  moral,  but  godly  and  Christian,  and  entirely  godly  and 
Christian —  "  oh  !  this  is  a  hard  saying,  who  can  bear  it  ?  "  But  the 
question  is,  whether  it  is  a  true  one.  We  wish  to  be  always  tender, 
but  we  dare  not  to  be  unfaithful  —  unfaithful  to  God,  unfaithful  to 
souls,  unfaithful  to  our  subject.  And  what  saith  the  Scriptures  ? 
Whose  lips  said,  "  straight  is  the  gate,  and  narrow  is  the  road  that 
leadeth  to  life,  and  few  there  be  that  find  it,"  whereas,  "  wide  is  the 
gate,  and  broad  is  the  road  that  leadeth  to  destruction,  and  many  there 
be  that  go  in  thereat  ?  "  Whose  lips  said,  "  Re  that  is  not  with  me 
is  against  me?" 

Our  subject,  therefore,  this  evening  is,  Opposition  to  Christ.  The 
disgracefulness  of  being  against  him;  the  danger  of  being  against 
him ;  the  possibility  of  being  against  him,  and  the  evidence  of  being 
against  him.  "  Consider  what  we  say,  and  may  the  Lord  give  you 
understanding  in  all  things." 

I.  The  DISGRACEFULNESS  of  being  against  Christ.  In  order  to 
make  this  appear  a  little,  you  will  observe  — 


OPPOSITION    TO    CHRIST.  191 

That  nothing  shows  men  more  than  their  attractions  and  aversions. 
Mark  the  objects  of  their  choice  and  of  their  preference ;  see  with 
whom  they  most  readily  and  pleasingly  associate ;  and  then  call  to 
remembrance  the  adage,  "  Tell  me  a  man's  company,  and  I  will  tell 
you  his  character."  Congeniality  is  the  inducement  and  the  bond  of 
union.  To  be  against  some  individuals  would  expose  you  to  general 
indignation.  Which  of  you  would  like  to  be  opposed  to  a  Thornton, 
a  Reynolds,  a  Howard,  a  Leigh  ton,  a  Fenelon?  But  here  we  have 
the  brightness  of  God's  glory,  and  the  express  image  of  his  person. 
What  a  picture  of  Christ  have  the  four  gospels  given  us  !  Look  at  it ; 
and  then  suffer  me  to  ask,  is  there  any  being  in  the  world  odious 
enough  to  be  against  him  ?  He  is  possessed  of  all  excellencies ;  all 
the  excellencies  found  in  creatures  separately  and  imperfectly,  are 
found  in  him  combined  and  complete.  Take  all  that  was  innocent  in 
Adam,  all  that  was  tender  in  Joseph,  all  that  was  meek  in  Moses, 
all  that  was  patient  in  Job,  all  that  was  zealous  in  Paul,  all  that  is 
good  in  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect,  all  that  is  wise  in  the 
innumerable  company  of  angels ;  and  even  the  aggregate  would  be 
no  more  to  his  glory  than  a  drop  to  the  ocean,  or  a  ray  to  the  sun. 
To  be  against  him  is,  therefore,  to  be  against  all  truth,  and  righteous- 
ness and  peace,  against  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  happiness  of  man- 
kind. 

Again  :  nothing  is  more  unreasonable,  vile,  and  shameful,  than  to 
oppose  a  Benefactor  and  Friend,  who  has  laid  you  under  peculiar  obli- 
gations, upon  whom  you  had  no  claim,  and  who  has  yet  spared  no 
expense,  no  pains  in  order  to  serve  you.  0  Lamb  of  God,  that  takest 
aAvay  the  sin  of  the  world !  what  do  we  owe  thee  !  To  thee  we  owe 
the  bread  we  eat,  the  water  we  drink,  the  air  we  breathe. 

"  There's  not  a  gift  thy  hand  bestows, 
But  cost  thy  heart  a  groan." 

If  we  are  allowed  to  remain  in  the  land  of  the  living,  it  is  owing  to 
thy  intercession  on  oxxr  behalf;  if  we  have  been  redeemed,  it  is  with 
thy  precious  blood ;  and  if  we  have  entertained  a  hope  of  a  better 
Avorld,  thou  hast  altogether  inspired  it.  And,  my  brethren,  he  asks 
—  and  he  has  a  right  to  ask — "  For  which  of  these  good  works  do  ye 
stone  me  ?  Is  it  because  I  remembered  you  in  your  low  estate  ?  Is 
it  because  for  your  sakes,  though  I  was  rich,  I  became  poor,  that  ye 
through  my  poverty  might  be  made  rich  ?  Is  it  because  I  bare  your 
sins  in  my  own  body  on  the  tree,  and  died  that  you  might  live  ?  " 
Against  him  !  Be  against  the  benefactor  who  plunged  into  the  flood 
to  save  you  from  drowning ;  be  against  him  who  generously  paid  your 
debt,  and  released  you  from  the  confinement  of  the  dungeon,  and  re- 


192  THE    ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

stored  you  to  the  bosom  of  your  family ;  be  against  your  father,  who 
has  been  laboring  to  train  you  up  and  provide  for  you  ;  be  against 
your  mother,  who  bare  you,  and  at  her  bosom  fed  you  ;  and  you  would 
be  a  thousand  times  less  infamous  than  you  are  when  you  are  against 
him.  Were  there  in  mankind  the  same  ingenuousness  in  religion  as  in 
other  things,  they  would  all,  every  one  of  them,  shun  you ;  they  would 
consider  you  the  disgrace  and  the  scandal  of  the  universe.  The  apos- 
tle Paul  was  not  revengeful ;  he  was  the  most  compassionate  man 
alive ;  and  yet  when  he  came  to  reflect  on  the  case,  he  made  no 
scruple  to  say,  "  If  any  man  love  not  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  let  bim 
be  Anathema  Maranatha." 
Let  us  now  look  — 

11.  At  the  DANGER  of  being  against  Christ.  There  are  three  ques- 
tions which  we  must  address  to  you  concerning  this.  The  first  of 
which  is  — 

Can  you  overcome  him  ?  Did  ever  any  succeed  in  opposing  him  ? 
Is  it  not  the  question  of  Job  —  "  Who  ever  hardened  himself  against 
him  and  prospered  ?  Did  the  old  world  ?  Let  the  deluge  tell.  Did 
Pharaoh  ?  Let  the  plagues  of  Egypt  and  the  closing  waves  of  the 
Red  Sea  tell.  Did  Hiel,  the  re-builder  of  Jericho  ?  Let  the  death  of 
Abiram  his  first-born,  and  the  death  of  Segub,  his  younger  son,  tell. 
Did  the  Jews  ?  Let  their  dispersion  and  sufferings  to  this  hour  tell. 
"  If,"  said  they,  "  we  let  him  thus  alone,  all  men  will  believe  on  him, 
and  the  Romans  will  come  and  take  away  both  our  place  and  nation." 
They  said.  It  does  not  seem  right  to  put  him  to  death,  but  state  reasons 
require  it  - —  expediency  requires  it ;  we  must  perish,  or  he  must  perish. 
Foolish  policy !  and  all  policy  is  foolish  that  is  not  founded  in  justice. 
And  were  they  preserved  from  the  evils  they  dreaded  by  crucifying 
him  ?  The  crime  drew  down  upon  them  the  very  thing,  and  the 
Romans  came,  and  with  such  cruelty  and  slaughter  as  never  distin- 
guished them  in  any  of  their  wars  ,  and  wrath  came  down  upon  them 
to  the  uttermost. 

This  is  an  emblem  of  all  those  who  oppose  him.  And  therefore, 
the  psalmist  says,  "  Why  do  the  heathen  rage,  and  the  people  imagine 
a  vain  thing  ?  The  kings  of  the  earth  set  themselves,  and  the  rulers 
take  counsel  together,  against  the  Lord,  and  against  his  anointed, 
saying.  Let  us  break  their  bands  asunder,  and  cast  away  their 
cords  from  us.  He  that  sitteth  in  the  heavens  shall  laugh  ;  the  Lord 
shall  have  them  in  derision."  "  Thou  shalt  break  them  with  a  rod 
of  iron ;  thou  shalt  dash  them  in  pieces  like  a  potter's  vessel."  And 
so  will  it  be  with  all  his  adversaries.     War  is  the  most  uncertain  thing 


OPPOSITION   TO   CHRIST.  198 

in  tlie  -world ;  and  wisdom  says,  "  Let  not  him  that  putteth  on  the 
armor  boast  himself  like  him  that  putteth  it  off.  And  the  Kevelation 
says, "  These  shall  make  war  with  the  Lamb ;  and  the  Lamb  shall 
overcome  them,  for  he  is  King  of  kings,  and  Lord  of  lords."  And 
what  are  they  ?  Worms  on  a  dunghill,  tampering  with  their  ruin, 
their  breath  in  their  nostrils,  and  themselves  crushed  before  the  moth. 
And  this  is  the  case  even  in  their  combination  too.  Hand  may 
join  in  hand,  but  they  will  not  go  unpunished.  God  has  said  of  the 
Messiah,  "  The  kingdom  and  the  nation  that  will  not  serve  thee 
shall  perish  ;  "  and  it  matters  not  how  learned  or  how  powerful  such 
kingdom  and  such  nation  may  be.  If  they  will  stand  opposite  the 
designs  of  Christ,  if  they  will  hinder  the  spread  of  the  gospel,  if  they 
will  endeavor  to  suppress  the  circulation  of  the  Scriptures,  if  they 
forbid  the  liberty  of  conscience,  if  they  endeavor  to  maintain  a  sys- 
tem which  his  honor  and  his  truth  require  to  be  destroyed,  let 
them  do  what  they  will,  their  doom  is  sealed,  and  their  destruction  is 
certain. 

But,  my  brethren,  we  wish  you  to  think,  not  of  nations,  but  of 
individuals;  we  wish  you  to  think,  not  of  Popish  countries,  but  of  ^oiw- 
selves,  and  to  remember  your  own  danger,  and  that  the  Savior  has 
said,  "  As  for  these  mine  enemies  that  would  not  that  I  should  reign 
over  them,  bring  them  forth,  and  slay  them  before  my  face." 
If  you  cannot  conquer,  let  us  ask  another  question : 
Can  you  mcZwrg  him  ?  This  is  his  own  inquiry  —  "  Can  thy  heart 
endure,  or  can  thy  hand  destroy,  when  I  shall  deal  with  thee  ?  "  And 
it  is  answered  by  every  thing  in  Scripture ;  or  rather,  indeed,  it  is 
not.  "  It  is  a  fearful  thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  hving  God ;  " 
but  none  of  the  sacred  writers  attempt  to  tell  us  hozv  fearful ;  they 
felt  they  were  unable.  His  is  a  wrath  accompanied  with  Almighty 
power,  and  with  boundless  resources.  As  for  the  rage  of  man,  it  is 
limited  ;  limited  as  to  time,  limited  by  the  very  nature  of  the  subject, 
limited  by  the  capacity  of  the  infliction.  But  there  arc  no  such  limits 
here.  Men  may  destroy  the  body,  and  there  is  no  more  that  they  can 
do ;  but  there  is  eternity  in  this  punishment ;  there  is  the  soul  with 
him  to  destroy ;  yea,  there  is  the  body  to  be  revived  to  share  in  the 
misery.  "  He  is  able  to  destroy  both  body  and  soul  in  hell ;  I  say 
unto  you,  Fear  him." 

If  you  cannot  conquer,  or  if  you  cannot  endure,  let  me  ask  — 
Can  you  escape  from  him  ?      Is  there  a  moral  possibility  of  your 
escaping  from  him  ?     Does  not  the  truth  of  God  forbid  the  supposi- 
tion ?     Does  not  the  justice  of  God  forbid  it  ?     Does  not  the  holiness 
of  God  forbid  it  ?   Has  he  not  said,  "  The  unrighteous  shall  not  inherit 
13 


194  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

the  kingdom  of  God  ?  "  Are  these  his  sayings  ?  and  is  he  a  faithful 
God  ?  Why,  the  only  hope  that  some  of  you  can  indulge  in,  is  a  hope 
that  God  will  be  found  a  liar,  and  his  Word  a  He.  What  a  forlorn 
hope  is  this  !  What  a  world  of  evidence  have  you  to  overcome  before 
you  can  He  down  and  enjoy  repose  !  Or  is  there  any  physical  possibil- 
ity of  your  escape  ?  Civil  justice  is  no  more  omniscient  than  it  is 
omnipotent.  How  often  do  criminals  elude  justice  !  How  frequently, 
when  they  are  pursued,  do  they  conceal  themselves  !  When  they  have 
been  in  prison,  they  have  broke  through  the  walls  ;  and  when  they  have 
been  fettered,  they  have  filed  off  their  chains  and  have  escaped.  But, 
my  brethren,  there  is  no  wisdom,  nor  understanding,  nor  counsel  against 
the  Lord.  "  He  that  fleeth  of  them  shall  not  flee  away,  and  he  that 
escapeth  of  them  shall  not  be  delivered."  "  Though  they  dig  into 
bell,  thence  shall  mine  hand  take  them ;  though  they  cHmb  up  to 
heaven,  thence  will  I  bring  them  down  ;  and  though  they  hide  them- 
selves in  the  top  of  Carmel,  I  will  search  and  take  them  out  thence  ; 
and  though  they  be  hid  from  my  sight  in  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  thence 
will  I  command  the  serpent,  and  he  shall  bite  them  ;  and  though  they 
go  into  captivity  before  their  enemies,  thence  will  I  command  the 
sword,  and  it  shall  slay  them ;  and  I  will  set  mine  eyes  upon  them  for 
evil,  and  not  for  good."  "  How,"  says  the  apostle  —  "  How  can  we 
escape  if  we  neglect  so  great  salvation  ?  " 
Let  us  notice  — 

HI.  The  POSSIBILITY  of  being  against  him.  For  there  are  many 
who  will  be  ready  to  say,  Wliy,  he  was  raised  up  from  the  dead  by 
the  glory  of  the  Father  ;  he  dieth  no  more  ;  death  hath  no  more  domin- 
ion over  him ;  the  heavens  have  received  him ;  and  he  himself  said, 
"  I  am  no  more  in  the  world  ;  "  how,  then,  can  any  oppose  him  now  ? 
To  this  we  answer,  that,  consistently  with  these  admissions,  there  is  a 
sense  in  which  he  is  now  in  the  world,  so  that  if  you  wish  to  show  your 
dislike  towards  him  you  can  do  it,  and  if  you  wish  to  show  your  love 
you  can  do  it. 

Observe,  first,  he  has  a  people,  and  they  that  persecute  them  perae- 
cute  Jdm.  Witness  his  address  to  Saul  of  Tarsus ;  "  Saul,  Saul," 
said  he,  "  why  persecutest  thou  me  ?  "  He  was  not  persecuting  him 
Ijersonally,  but  relatively,  in  his  ministers,  and  in  his  followers.  It 
would  be  in  vain  for  you  to  say  to  a  man,  "  I  do  not  injure  you,"  and 
then  wound  him  in  the  arm  or  the  foot.  Why,  are  not  his  members 
himself  ?  And  our  Savior  says,  "  He  that  toucheth  you,  toucheth  the 
apple  of  mine  eye."  It  would  be  in  vain  for  one  to  say,  "  I  am  not 
agauist  you,"  and  then  injure  your  wife  or  your  children.     Why,  they 


oi'POsitiOxN:  to  ciirist.  195 

are  you.  And  Christians  are  his  bride,  and  they  are  his  children  ; 
and  he  "will  avenge  himself  of  their  persecutors  and  of  his  own.  Hence 
says  David,  "  He  has  bent  his  bow,  and  made  ready  his  arrow,  to 
shoot  the  persecutors." 

This  opposition  very  early  begun.  You  remember  that  Cain  slew 
his  brother  Abel ;  and  wherefore  did  he  slay  him  ?  Because  his  works 
were  evil,  and  his  brother's  righteous.  The  principle,  therefore,  is  not 
confined  to  any  age  of  the  world ;  the  nature  of  real  godUness  is  always 
the  same,  and  will  provoke  the  resentment  of  human  nature,  which 
also  is  always  the  same.  Acts,  indeed,  may  vary  according  to  circum- 
stances. The  spirit  of  our  constitution  and  government  is  friendly  to 
the  rights  of  individuals ;  our  profession  and  religion,  therefore,  does 
not  expose  us  to  the  penalties  of  death,  and  stripes,  and  imprisonments, 
and  fines.  But  our  forefathers  endured  all  this  ;  and  we  should  call 
those  days  to  remembrance,  and  be  grateful  for  our  own  advantages. 
"But  the  tongue  can  no  man  tame,"  saith  the  Scripture  ;  and  "  out 
of  the  abundance  of  the  heart  the  mouth  speaketh."  And  when  the 
mouth  is  silent  from  decency,  the  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against  God  ; 
and  there  will  be  always  instances  of  persecution,  therefore,  which  no 
legislation  will  be  able  to  restrain  or  prevent ;  showing  that  as  it  was 
then,  so  it  is  now — they  that  are  after  the  flesh,  persecute  them  that 
are  after  the  Spirit. 

Again ;  he  has  a  cause  in  the  world ;  and  this  cause  is  the  gospel 
of  our  salvation,  infinitely  dear  to  him,  and  every  way  beneficial  to 
man,  whether  considered  individually  or  socially,  personally  or  relar 
tively.  We  defy  any  history  to  produce  an  instance  of  an  abiding, 
consistent,  real  change  of  character  and  of  nature,  accomplished 
where  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  or  the  doctrine  of  the  cross,  has  been 
denied  or  rejected,  in  any  province,  or  village,  or  individual.  But 
v.'hat  was  accomplished  in  the  first  ages  of  Christianity  ?  What  mar- 
vellous changes !  Did  not  Corinth  know  ?  Did  not  Rome  know  ? 
Did  not  Thessalonica  know  ?  Did  they  not  always  witness  these 
amazing  transformations  of  character  for  the  better  ?  And  to  this 
very  day  the  same  results  follow.  There  the  gospel  came  not  in 
word  only,  but  in  power,  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  in  much  assu- 
rance. We  speak  that  we  do  know,  and  testify  that  we  have  seen- 
The  drunkard  has  become  sober,  and  the  swearer  has  learned  to  fear 
an  oath,  and  the  Sabbath  breaker  has  "  called  the  Sabbath  a  delight ; 
the  holy  of  the  Lord,  honorable  ;  "  and  men  who  were  before  a  bur- 
den to  themselves,  and  a  curse  to  the  neighborhood,  delivered  from 
the  tyranny  of  their  evil  appetites  and  passions,  and  from  the  stings 
of  a  guilty  conscience,  have  been  called,  and  softened,  and  refreshed  ; 


196  THE    ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

and  having  obtained  mercy,  have  found  it  their  happiness  to  dif- 
fuse it. 

And  yet  how  this  gospel  has  been  opposed  !  When  the  mariner's 
compass  and  other  useful  discoveries  were  made  known  in  our  country-, 
how  were  they  hailed  in  their  errand !  But  how  has  it  been  with  the 
gospel,  which  is  infinitely  the  greatest  blessing  which  the  human  race 
ever  possessed  ?  How  has  it  been  opposed  as  if  it  were  a  pestilence 
that  walketh  in  darkness,  and  the  destruction  that  cometh  at  noon  day  I 
"Why  ?  My  brethren,  the  secret  can  be  explained.  The  gospel  is  the 
enemy  of  self  and  sin.  The  gospel  offends  the  pride  of  human  nature, 
by  considering  all  upon  a  level  naturally,  and  affording  only  the  same 
salvation  for  all,  regardless  of  any  difference  of  station  or  of  charac- 
ter ;  and  it  excludes  all  boasting,  so  that  if  any  man  glory  he  must 
glory  in  the  Lord. 

And  it  also  offends  because  of  its  sanctifying  influence.  Men  love 
to  be  lawless ;  they  love  to  stand  with  David's  vain  ones,  who  said, 
"  With  our  lips  we  will  prevail ;  our  tongues  are  our  own ;  who  is 
lord  over  us  ? "  Many  of  them  indeed  may  be  willing  to  part  with 
those  sins,  to  which  they  have  no  temptation  in  their  constitution  or  in 
their  external  calling ;  but  the  gospel  requires  you  to  pluck  out  a 
right  eye,  and  to  cut  off  a  right  arm,  and  to  part  with  your  bosom 
lusts.  There  are  some  who  would  be  wiUing,  like  Herod,  to  do  many 
things  if  Herodias  was  still  allowed  them.  But  the  fact  is,  the  gospel 
allows  no  sensual  indulgences  ;  it  teaches  "  to  deny  all  ungodliness  and 
worldly  lusts,  and  to  hve  soberly,  righteously  and  godly  in  the  present 
world." 

Again ;  he  has  also  a  providential  agency  on  earth  ;  and  the  dispen- 
sations of  his  providence  are  designed  to  promote  the  purposes  of  his 
grace.  He  does  all  that  is  done  in  the  affairs  of  nations  and  of  indi- 
viduals. It  is  he  that  makes  our  cups  run  over,  or  that  breaks  our 
cisterns,  so  that  they  can  hold  no  water.  It  is  he  that  gives  us  health, 
or  sends  sickness.  It  is  he  that  suffers  our  children  to  be  about  us, 
or  destroys  the  hopes  of  man.  All  these  are  designed  to  allure  us  jto 
himself,  or  to  constrain  us  to  seek  a  better,  even  a  heavenly  country, 
and  to  forsake  the  foolish  and  live.  But  all  this,  you  see,  is  vain  ;  men 
oppose  him  in  his  smiles  and  in  his  frowns  ;  and  they  say  by  their 
tempers,  if  not  by  their  lips,  "  Depart  from  us,  for  we  desire  not  the 
knowledge  of  thy  ways." 

IV.  Let  us  notice  the  evidence  of  being  against  him.  For  if  it 
be  allowed  to  be  possible  that  men  can  be  against  him,  there  are  some 
■who  seem  to  think  that  it  is  a  very  improbable  thing.      So  it  has  fre- 


OPPOSITION   TO   CHRIST.  197 

quently  been  supposed,  and  some  of  the  heathen  moraUsts  have  said, 
that  if  ever  virtue  appeared  visible,  it  -would  engage  the  esteem  and 
admiration  of  all  mankind.  There  was  one  exception  to  this  opinion. 
Socrates  differed  from  his  brethren  in  many  particulars :  and  Socrates, 
having  expressed  his  idea  of  a  perfect  character,  ventured  to  predict 
the  treatment  he  would  be  likely  to  meet  with  if  he  appeared  in  our 
world.  He  contended  that  his  practice  would  be  so  pecuUar,  that  his 
reproofs  would  be  so  unwelcome,  that  his  endeavors  to  reform  and 
reclaim  men  would  be  so  importunate  and  irksome,  that  mankind, 
too  degenerate  to  bear  either  his  example  or  his  reproof,  instead  of 
loving  would  hate  him,  and  probably  persecute  him,  and  (how 
remarkable  that  he  should  use  the  word  !  not  put  Mm  to  death,  but) 
crucify  him.  * 

Now  was  this  a  judgment  according  to  truth.  Such  a  character  did 
appear  in  our  world ;  he  was  the  image  of  the  invisible  God ;  he  went 
about  doing  good,  and  good  only.  And  how  was  he  received  ?  He 
was  "  despised  and  rejected  of  men."  "He  was  in  the  world,  and 
the  world  was  made  by  him,  and  the  world  knew  him  not.  He  came 
unto  his  own,  and  his  own  received  him  not."  "  The  world,"  said  he 
to  the  Jews,  "  cannot  hate  you ;  but  me  it  hateth,  because  I  testify 
that  its  deeds  are  evil."  "  Marvel  not,  if  the  world  hate  you ;  you 
know  that  it  hated  me  before  it  hated  you." 

"  I  would  not  have  been  against  him,"  some  are  ready  to  say,  "  if 
I  had  lived  in  the  days  of  his  flesh."  So  the  Jews  said  while  they 
were  adorning  the  tombs  of  the  good  prophets  their  fathers  had  per- 
secuted ;  they  said,  "  Had  we  lived  in  the  days  of  our  fathers  we 
would  not  have  persecuted  them,"  while  they  were  involved  in  a 
course  far  more  criminal.  Their  ancestors  had  only  shed  the  blood  of 
God's  servants,  while  they  were  imbruing  their  hands  in  the  blood  of 
his  own  Son. 

Again  ;  when  you  hear  of  persons  being  against  Christ,  you  think 
of  tyrants,  of  Neros,  Julians,  and  Voltaires,  of  infidels,  profligates 
and  blasphemers,  of  murderers  of  fathers,  and  murderers  of  mothers ; 
all  these  beings  are  against  him.  But  do  not  deceive  yourselves ; 
the  charge  comprehends  many  characters  distinguished  by  nothing  of 
all  this  ;  the  charge  embraces  thousands  who  never  swore  au  oath  in 
their  lives,  thousands  who  never  broke  a  promise  to  their  ftllow- 
creatures,  perhaps,  in  their  lives,  thousands  who  have  regularly 
attended  on  the  means  of  grace,  who  have  always  on  the  Sabbath 
repaired  to  the  house  of  God  to  hear  the  preaching  of  the  Word ; 
and  therefore,  perhaps,  there  may  be  some  —  oh !  my  God,  there  may 
be  many  in  this  very  assembly ;    for  what  says  he  who  cannot  be 


198  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

deluded,  and  wlio  cannot  deceive  ?  "  He  tliat  is  not  with  me  is  against 
me." 

You  have  heard  much  of  antichrist.  The  word  signifies  against 
Christ ;  and  this  has  been  apphed  to  Popery,  and  very  justly,  for  what 
can  be  more  against  Christ  than  nearly  the  whole  of  their  system  ? 
But  John  says,  "  Even  now  are  there  many  antichrists  ;  "  therefore 
there  may  be  antichrists  among  Protestants  as  well  as  among  Papists. 
A  Socinian  is  an  antichrist ;  a  sinner  trusting  in  his  own  righteousness 
is  an  antichrist ;  so  is  every  mere  formal  professor  who  is  holding  the 
truth  in  unrighteousness. 

The  question  therefore  is,  Are  you  ivitli  him  ?  Are  you  with  him  in 
sentiment,  in  disposition,  in  action,  in  pursuit  ?  Are  you  with  him  as 
scholars  are  with  their  teacher,  as  servants  are  with  their  master,  as 
soldiers  are  with  their  commander,  as  subjects  are  with  their  sove- 
reign ?  Does  he  occupy  the  highest  place  in  your  regard  ?  Does  he 
dwell  in  your  hearts  by  faith  ?  Do  you  say,  "  Other  lords  besides 
thee  have  had  dominion  over  me,  but  henceforth  will  I  make  mention 
of  thy  name  ?"  And  do  you  feel  what  is  done  against  Mm  as  done 
against  yourselves  f  And  are  you  "  sorrowful  for  the  solemn  assembly, 
who  are  of  thee,  to  whom  the  reproach  of  it  was  a  burden  ?  "  And 
does  the  reproach  of  them  that  reproached  him  fall  on  you  ?  And  do 
you  tremble  when  you  hear  his  precious  name  blasphemed  ?  and  do  you 
rejoice  in  the  advancement  of  his  cause  ?  and  are  you  praying  that  liis 
kingdom  may  come,  and  that  his  Word  may  have  free  course  and  bo 
glorified  ?  and  does  this  simplify  your  life,  and  does  it  regulate  it  ?  Are 
you  willing  on  this  altar  to  oflfer  all  adverse  interests  ?  And  are  you 
concerned  to  make  every  thing  not  only  subordinate,  but  subservient 
to  his  praise  ?  Alas  !  how  many  are  there  here — and  they  know  it  — 
who  are  not  with  him  ;  and  we  know  therefore .  that  they  are  against 
him,  for  this  is  the  doctrine  of  our  text. 

Let  me,  therefore,  men  and  brethren,  remind  you,  in  conclusion, 
that  this  is  an  awful  truth.  There  is  no  neutrality  in  religion.  There 
are  cases  in  which  neutrality  is  possible  ;  there  are  cases  in  which  it 
may  be  excused,  if  not  admired  and  commended.  In  family  disputes, 
and  in  the  quarrels  of  your  neighbors,  it  may  be  wise  and  aycII  to  keep 
neutral.  If  you  do  no  good  by  interfering,  you  may  do  evil ;  and  that 
is  no  little  thing  in  a  world  like  this.  Two  nations  may  wage  war 
against  each  other,  and  waste  their  mutual  resources,  whilst  a  third, 
however  urged,  may  remain  neutral,  securing  its  subjects,  and  hus- 
banding its  wealth.  Some  have  thought  the  excellency  of  a  senator 
to  be,  that  he  belongs  to  no  party.  I  once  thought  the  same  myself, 
but  I  do  not  now  ;  I  see  that  things  are  now  in  such  a  state  that  a 


OPPOSITION  TO   CHRIST.  199 

man  inust  take  a  part,  tliat  he  can  do  nothing  now  as  a  neutral,  ■w'hether 
in  poUtics  or  in  religion,  having  no  influence  with  either  party.  Let 
him,  therefore,  choose  his  side,  and  avow  it ;  and  let  him  be  as  mod- 
erate on  his  side  as  possible,  and  endeavor  to  improve  his  side  as  much 
as  possible  ;  for  you  will  see  all  that  comes  between,  falling  down 
between  both  parties,  both  of  whom  they  disown,  and  both  of  whom 
disown  them. 

But  if  it  were  not  so,  I  repeat  it  again,  there  can  be  no  neutrality 
hei-e ;  and  this  cannot  be  repeated  too  often.  "  No  man  can  serve 
two  masters ;  for  either  he  will  hate  the  one  and  love  the  other ;  or 
else  he  will  hold  to  the  one  and  despise  the  other ;  ye  cannot  serve 
God  and  mammon."  "  Whosoever,  therefore,  will  be  the  friend  of  the 
world,  is  the  enemy  of  God."  "  If  any  man  love  the  world,  the  love 
of  the  Father  is  not  in  him."  Let  me  therefore  recommend  to  you 
faith  in  this  decision.  There  are  many  people  who  speak  as  if  the 
Bible  had  said  nothing  ;  whereas  it  has  said  all.  They  say,  "  If  we 
are  not  so  good  as  some,  we  are  not  so  bad  as  others  ;  and  if  we  are 
not  friends,  we  are  not  enemies."  But  what  does  he  say  ?  It  is  not 
the  opinion  of  the  prisoner,  but  the  opinion  of  the  judge,  which  is  to 
be  consulted  in  such  cases  as  these.  A  magistrate  one  day  said,  "I 
was  yesterday  attending  for  hoars  on  a  villain  who  was  accusing  a 
scoundrel,  both  of  whom  ought  to  have  been  hanged  on  the  same  gal- 
lows." Nothing  can  be  more  disagreeable  than  to  find  persons  who 
are  all  in  the  wrong  disputing  among  themselves  who  is  right.  AVhy, 
at  the  deluge  persons  could  be  drowned  any  where,  but  there  was  only 
one  ark  to  save  them.  There  is  only  one  way  of  salvation  now,  but 
there  are  a  thousand  ways  of  destruction.  It  matters  not,  therefore, 
what  you  are,  or  what  you  do,  if  you  are  destitute  of  faith  and  real 
holiness ;  for  our  Savior  has  said,  "  He  that  believeth  not  shall  be 
damned ;"  and  "without  holiness,"  saj^s  his  apostle,  "no  man  shall 
see  the  Lord." 

Make  this,  therefore,  'the  standard  of  your  inquiry ;  and  do  not 
observe  it  casually  ;  consult  it  when  you  are  alone,  and  ask  whether 
it  accuses  or  acquits  you  —  whether  it  condemns  or  justifies  you.  I 
know  not,  my  dear  hearers,  how  you  hear,  but  when  I  hear  such  a 
question  as  this,  it  often  shakes  my  hope  to  the  centre,  and  I  go 
down  from  this  desk,  trembling  lest  after  preaching  to  others  I 
myself  should  be  a  castaway.  Endeavor,  therefore,  to  be  decided  ; 
do  not  rest  in  negatives  ;  remember  that  you  are  not  only  required 
to  "  cease  to  do  evil,"  but  to  "  learn  to  do  well ;  "  "  that  every  tree 
that  bringeth  not  forth  good  fruit,"  though  it  bring  forth  no  bad 
fruit,  "  is  hewn  down  and  cast  into  the  fire  ;  "  that  the  servant  who 


200  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

vras  -wicked,  and  because  unprofitable  was  therefore  cast  into  outer 
darkness,  was  the  man  who  had  one  talent,  which  he  did  not  abuse, 
but  wrapt  it  up  in  a  napkin.  There  is  no  medium  between  loving 
Christ  and  hating  him.  When  the  dispute  is  between  God  and  Baal, 
there  is  to  be  no  halting  between  two  opinions.  "  I  would,"  says 
the  Savior,  "  thou  wert  either  cold  or  hot ;  so  then,  because  thou 
art  lukewarm,  and  neither  cold  nor  hot,  I  will  spew  thee  out  of  my 
mouth." 

But  there  are  some,  blessed  be  God,  who  are  with  him.  This  is 
their  glory,  and  this  should  be  their  joy.  Are  they  with  him  now  ? 
They  shall  be  with  him  for  ever.  Are  they  now  suffering  with  him  ? 
They  shall  also  reign  with  him.  Are  they  now  with  him  in  the  reproach 
of  the  cross?  They  shall  soon  be  with  him  in  the  glory  of  the  crown. 
Are  they  now  with  him  in  the  toils  of  the  fight  ?  They  shall  soon  be 
with  him  in  the  triumphs  of  victory ;  and  he  will  fulfil  his  Word  — 
"  Him  that  overcometh  will  I  grant  to  sit  with  me  on  my  throne,  even 
as  I  overcame  and  am  sat  down  with  my  Father  on  his  throne."  "  You 
are  they,"  says  he,  "  who  have  continued  with  me  in  my  temptations; 
and  I  appoint  unto  you  a  kingdom,  as  my  Father  hath  appointed  unto 
me ;  that  ye  may  eat  and  drink  at  my  table  in  my  kingdom,  and  sit 
on  thrones,  judging  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel."  You  are  on  the 
safe  side ;  you  are  on  the  rising  side ;  you  are  on  the  side  which  by- 
and-by  will  anniliilate  the  opposite  side  and  become  a  universality. 
You  are  with  him — are  advancing  with  him.  Here  is  the  Savior, 
here  are  his  people  ;  they  are  weak,  but  he  is  almighty ;  he  is  at  their 
head  ;  therefore  be  not  afraid  to  go  forward.  Ye  infidel  powers,  and 
ye  spiritual  wickednesses  in  high  places,  bring  forward  all  your  forces ; 
we  challenge  you  in  the  face  of  the  universe.  You  know  we  began 
our  course  at  the  lake  of  Galilee  ;  we  drove  you  before  us  to  the 
east  and  the  west,  to  the  north  and  the  south  ;  the  kingdom  of  God 
was  established  in  spite  of  you,  and  mightily  grew  the  Word  of  God 
and  prevailed,  and  does  still.  Do  not  you  see,  all  your  efforts  have 
only  covered  you  with  shame  ?  In  a  little  while  it  shall  be  said,  with- 
out a  figure,  "  Behold,  the  whole  world  is  gone  after  him."  The  Lord 
hasten  it  in  his  time  ! 

But  where  shall  the  ungodly  and  the  sinner  appear  ?  At  present 
Jesus  is  upon  the  throne  of  grace  ;  oh  !  that  I  could  urge  you  imme- 
diately to  apply  to  him  there !  Though  your  sins  were  as  scarlet, 
they  should  be  white  as  snow ;  though  they  were  red  like  crimson, 
they  shoidd  be  as  wool.  He  says,  "  Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way, 
and  the  unrighteous  man  his  thoughts  :  and  let  him  return  unto  the 
Lord,  and  he  will  have  mercy  upon  him ;  and  to  our  God,  for  he  will 


EASE   FOR   THE   TROUBLED    SPIRIT.  201 

abundantly  pardon."  Here  is  Lis  own  proclamation  ;  these  are  his 
proposals.  Oh !  that  you  would  believe  him,  and  throw  down  the 
weapons  of  your  rebellion,  and  confide  in  the  word  of  a  prince,  that 
if  you  come  in  and  submit  yourselves  you  shall  obtain  life  and  peace. 
Oh  !  if  you  did  but  know  his  bands  and  cords  of  love  !  Oh  !  if  you 
did  but  know  the  liberty  of  his  service  !  Oh !  if  you  did  but  know 
how  easy  his  yoke,  and  how  light  his  burden !  Oh  !  did  you  but 
know  the  blessedness  of  those  who  know  the  joyful  sound  and  walk 
in  the  light  of  his  countenance,  and  in  his  righteousness  exalt  them- 
selves !  Surely  you  would  immediately  repair  to  him.  Oh !  let 
me  entreat  you,  let  me  beseech  you,  to  do  this.  I  conclude  in  the 
language  of  the  psalmist :  "  Kiss  the  Son "  —  that  is,  "  submit  to 
him  "  —  "  lest  he  be  angry,  and  ye  perish  by  the  way,  when  his  wrath 
is  kindled  but  a  Uttle.  Blessed  are  all  they  that  put  their  trust  in 
him." 


SERMON   XVII. 

EASE     FOR     THE     TROUBLED     SPIRIT. 

BY  THE  REV.  CHARLES  BRADLEY,  M.  A. 

*'Inthe  multitude  of  my  thoughts  within  rae,  thy  comforts  delight  my  soul." — Psalms  xciv.  19. 

A  TEXT  of  this  kind  shows  us  forcibly  the  power  of  Divine  grace  in 
the  human  heart :  how  much  it  can  do  to  sustain  and  cheer  the  heart. 
The  world  may  afflict  a  believer,  and  pain  him  ;  but  if  the  grace  which 
God  has  given  him  is  in  active  exercise  in  his  soul,  the  world  cannot 
make  him  unhappy.  It  rather  adds  by  its  ill  treatment  to  his  happi- 
ness ;  for  it  brings  God  and  his  soul  nearer  together —  God  the  foun- 
tain of  all  happiness,  the  rest  and  satisfaction  of  his  soul. 
,  This  psalm  was  evidently  written  by  a  deeply  afflicted  man.  The 
wicked,  he  says,  were  triumphing  over  him  ;  and  had  been  so  for  a 
long  while.  He  could  find  no  one  on  earth  to  take  his  part  against 
them.  "  Who  will  rise  up  for  me  against  the  evil-doers  ?  "  he  asks  in 
the  sixteenth  verse  ;  "  or  who  will  stand  up  for  me  against  the  workers 
of  ini({uity  ?  "  And  it  seemed,  too,  as  tliough  God  had  abandoned 
him.  His  enemies  thought  so,  and  he  seems  to  have  been  almost  ready 
to  think  so  himself.  But  Avliat  was  the  fact  ?  All  this  time  the  Lord 
waa  secretly  pouring  consolation  into  his  soul,  and  in  the  end  made 


202  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

that  consolation  abundant.  In  appearance  a  wretched,  he  was  in  real- 
ity a  happy  man ;  suflfering,  yet  comforted  ;  yea,  the  text  says,  delighted 
—  "  Thy  comforts  delight  my  soul." 

We  must  consider,  first,  his  sorrow ;  and  then,  his  comfort  under  it. 
The  evil ;  and  the  remedy. 

I.  In  his  sorrow,  there  are  two  things  for  us  to  notice  :  the  source, 
and  the  greatness  of  it. 

1.  The  source  of  it,  you  may  say,  is  doubtless  the  ill  treatment  he 
was  experiencing.  But  not  so,  brethren  ;  it  arose,  he  says,  from  his 
own  mind  —  his  own  thoughts.  Our  Prayer-Book  version  of  the  pas- 
sage makes  this  clear ;  the  word  translated  here  "  thoughts,"  is  rendered 
there  "  sorrows."  The  one  translation  explains  the  other ;  the  psalm- 
ist means  thoughts  that  engender  sorrows ;  disturbed,  sorrowful  and 
distressing  thoughts. 

But  who  can  keep  these  out  of  his  mind  when  trouble  comes,  or 
indeed  when  it  does  not  come  ?  None  of  us,  brethren.  The  best  of 
us  are  liable  at  all  times  to  these  sources  of  disquietude.  Some  of  us 
suffer  more  from  them  than  from  all  our  outward  afflictions  put 
together. 

To  enumerate  them  all  WOuld  be  an  endless  task  ;  but  some  we  may 
mention. 

There  are  thoughts  concerning  our  own  spiritual  state  and  condition, 
which  are  often  painful  to  us.  "Is  Christ  my  Savior  ?  or  is  he  not  ? 
Is  this  heart  of  mine  a  really  converted  heart  ?  or  still  a  hard,  ungod- 
ly, unclean  one  ?  Am  I  one  of  the  sheep  of  Christ — one  that  the 
good  shepherd  in  his  love  and  power  has  brought  to  himself,  and  will 
eventually  take  to  his  home  in  the  heavens  ?  or  am  I  one  of  the  filthy 
swine,  that  he  can  now  take  no  delight  in,  and  that  in  his  holiness  he 
will  one  day  cast  for  ever  from  him  ?  " 

And  there  are  thoughts  of  the  same  character  as  to  our  future  spir- 
itual course  and  condition.  If  we  really  are  the  Lord's,  how  we  shall 
keep  so :  how  we  shall  ever  get  through  the  difficvilties  and  temptations 
we  see  before  us,  and  bear  up  under  the  conflict  that  is  going  on  with- 
in us,  and  keep  alive  the  faith  and  hope  and  love,  that  so  frequently 
even  now  seem  expiring. 

And  then  come  thoughts  of  the  same  troublous  concern  about  death 
and  judgment.  How  it  will  be  with  us  when  we  come  to  die  ;  how  we 
shall  bear  the  sinking  of  dissolving  nature  ;  the  going  into  a  new, 
strange,  untried  world ;  the  first  sight  there  of  a  holy  God  ;  the  stand- 
ing before  him,  as  sinners,  to  be  judged. 

And  this  world,  too,  how  many   harassing,  distressing  thoughts  does 


EASE  FOR   THE  TROUBLED   SPIRIT.  203 

that  give  rise  to  within  us !  We  profess  to  have  overcome,  and  tri- 
umphed over  it ;  but  the  battle,  dear  brethren,  we  at  times  find  has 
not  been  half  fought  nor  Avon.  "  My  Savior  has  told  me,  to  '  take  no 
thought  of  the  morrow  ; '  he  has  promised  to  think  of  it  for  me,  and 
provide  against  it  for  me  ;  nay,  he  has  told  me  that  he  has  already  so 
provided  for  it ;  and  oh  !  that  I  could  leave  it  entirely  in  his  hands ! 
But  it  is  not  always  I  can.  What  shall  I  do  when  this  or  that  thing 
comes,  which  I  see  impending  ?  I  would  '  provide  things  honest  in  the 
sight  of  all  men ; '  but  how,  amid  the  difficulties  I  am  placed  in,  shall 
I  ever  do  it  ?  But  children  must  be  provided  for ;  how  shall  I  provide 
for  them  ?  They  will  want  a  friend  to  watch  over  them  when  I  am 
gone  ;  who  will  befriend  them  ?  They  may  go  before  me  ;  if  so,  how 
shall  I  bear  the  loss  !  "  "  And  these  afflictions,"  the  soul  says  at  other 
times, "  that  are  even  now  come  upon  me  — why  are  they  come  ?  why  are 
they  so  multiplied  one  upon  another,  and  so  long  continued  ?  I  want 
to  be  enlightened  ;  I  cannot  understand  the  Lord's  dealings  with  me  ; 
the  more  I  think,  the  more  I  am  perplexed  and  disturbed." 

And  sometimes  we  can  excite  anxious  thoughts  in  our  minds,  even 
from  the  absence  of  afflicting  providences.  "  I  read  in  my  Bible,"  the 
soul  says,  "  that '  whom  the  Lord  loveth  he  chasteneth ; '  but  he  chas- 
tens not  me.  The  sun  rises  brightly  day  after  day  upon  me ;  my  days 
pass  in  peace  and  quietness  ;  oh  !  if  I  were  a  child  of  God  could  this 
be  so  ?  " 

And  then,  brethren,  when  in  our  better  moments  we  forget  ourselves, 
and  look  at  the  world  and  church  around  us,  here  again  our  thoughts 
often  trouble  us.  We  mourn  over  the  world's  sins,  and  distractions, 
and  miseries ;  we  are  ready  to  tremble  often  for  the  ark,  the  cause, 
the  church,  the  glory  of  God.  The  Lord  says  to  us  —  "Be  still,  and 
know  that  I  am  God  ;  I  will  be  exalted  among  the  heathen,  /  mil  be 
exalted  in  the  earth  ; "  but  we  are  afraid  he  will  not  be  exalted  —  we 
find  it  hard  to  be  still.  We  are  as  anxious  for  the  church  and  for  the 
cause  of  Christ,  as  though  Christ  were  not  that  great  and  lofty  being 
we  know  he  is  —  the  omnipotent  King  of  Zion  —  but  some  potty  prince, 
who  cannot  maintain  his  own  cause,  from  whose  hands  the  sceptre  is 
ready  to  fall  because  of  weakness. 

I  need  not  go  on.  You  all  know,  that  thinking  is  sometimes  pain- 
ful and  distressing  work.  All  of  us,  some  in  one  way  and  some  in 
another,  have  found  out  with  the  psalmist,  that  "  thoughts  "  are  fre- 
quently only  another  name  for  "  sorrows." 

2.  Observe,  now,  the  greatness  of  this  man's  distress. 

This  is  forcibly  expressed  in  the  text,  though  in  our  translation  it  is 
scarcely  obvious.     The  word  in  it  rendered  "  thoughts,"  scholars  tell 


204  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

US,  signifies  originally  the  small  branches  of  trees.  The  idea  in  the 
psalmist's  mind  appears  to  be  this.  "  Look  at  a  tree,  with  its  branches 
shooting  in  every  direction,  entangling  and  entwining  themselves  one 
with  another  ;  let  the  wind  take  them  —  see  how  they  feel  it,  how  rest- 
less they  become,  and  confused,  beating  against  and  striving  one  with 
another.  Now  my  mind  is  like  that  tree.  I  have  a  great  many 
thoughts  in  it,  and  thoughts  which  are  continually  shifting  and  chang- 
ing ;  they  are  perplexed  and  agitated  thoughts,  battling  one  with  anoth- 
er. There  is  no  keeping  the  mind  quiet  under  them  ;  they  bring  dis- 
order into  it,  as  well  as  sorrow."  And  mark  the  word  "  multitude  " 
in  the  text ;  there  is  exactly  the  same  idea  in  that.  It  signifies  more 
than  number  :  confusion.  Think  of  a  crowd  collected  and  hurrying 
about :  "  so,"  says  the  psalmist,  "  are  my  thoughts.  I  have  a  crowd 
of  them  in  my  mind,  and  a  restless  confused  crowd.  One  painful 
thought  is  bad  enough,  but  I  have  many  :  a  multitude  of  them  ;  an 
almost  countless,  a  disturbed  throng." 

We  now,  then,  understand  the  case  we  have  before  us.  This  man's 
sorrow  arose,  at  this  time,  from  disquieting  thoughts  within  his  own 
breast ;  and  his  sorrow  was  great,  because  these  thoughts  were  many, 
and  at  the  same  time  tumultuous. 

"  But  what,"  some  light-hearted  persons  m,ay  be  ready  to  say,  "  is 
such  sorrow  to  us  ?  We  know  nothing  of  it ;  why  should  we  be  told 
of  it  ?  "  Dear  brethren,  here  is  one  reason  why  you  should  be  told  of 
it,  that  you  may  see  and  learn,  that  God  need  not  go  far,  at  any  time, 
to  afflict  any  one  of  us.  He  can  do  it,  this  text  says,  without  calling  to 
his  aid  sickness,  or  losses,  or  disappointments,  or  any  outward  calami- 
ties ;  there  is  a  scourge  ready  prepared  for  him  within  our  own  breasts. 
He  has  only  to  turn  our  minds,  our  own  thoughts,  loose  on  us,  and  we 
shall  be  miserable  enough. 

We  know  not,  brethren,  what  there  is  in  our  hearts  —  how  much 
evil  and  how  many  seeds  of  misery  and  bitterness.  God  in  his  mercy 
restrains  for  a  time  the  workings  of  our  own  minds  ;  but  now  and  then 
he  lets  a  bitter  branch  shoot  up,  that  we  may  see  there  is  bitterness 
within  us.  But  the  harvest  of  evil  and  the  harvest  of  misery  —  he 
reserves  that  to  a  distant  day.  The  Lord  grant  that  none  of  yon  may 
reap  it.  But  reap  it  you  will,  brethren,  if  you  make  no  effort  now  to 
escape  it.  It  is  a  part  of  that  "  wrath  to  come,"  which  we  must  have 
fall  on  us,  if  we  do  not  now  flee  from  it.  Continue  to  make  light  of 
God's  "  great  salvation,"  and  you  will  understand  at  last  too  well,  that 
there  is  no  wretchedness  like  that  which  is  born  within  a  man's  own 
bosom  ;  which  springs  out  of  a  man's  own  mind  —  a  thinking,  active, 
disquieted,  guilty,  God-abandoned  mind  —  a  heart  given  up  to  itself, 


EASE   FOR   THE   TROUBLED    SPIRIT.  205 

its  own  evils,  its  own  wild  thoughts  and  workings.  Oh  !  dread  that, 
brethren  ;  dread  it  more  than  poverty,  or  bereavements,  or  any  of  the 
mortal  ills  "  that  flesh  is  heir  to."  Oh  !  dread  it  as  you  would  dread 
hell.  Let  us  all  pray  —  "  Lord  !  cleanse  thou  the  thoughts  of  our  hearts 
within  us.  Whatever  thou  take  from  us,  take  not  thy  Spirit,  thy 
restraining  Spirit,  from  us.  Never  in  thine  anger  leave  us  to 
ourselves." 

II.  Let  us  now  go  on  to  our  second  point :  the  psalmist's  comfort  in 
his  sorrow. 

1.  Look,  first,  at  the  source  of  this.  It  came  from  God.  "  My 
thoughts,"  he  says  ;  they  constituted  his  sorrow  ;  it  sprung  from  him- 
self. But  "  Thy  comforts,"  he  says ;  his  consolations  were  from  God. 
Here  again,  brethren,  let  me  remind  you,  we  may  afflict  and  torment 
ourselves,  but  it  is  the  living  God  only  who  can  comfort  us.  It  is  easy 
for  us  to  set  our  minds  at  work,  and  raise  a  storm :  but  if  we  want  to  be 
quieted,  if  we  want  a  calm  there  —  a  real  calm,  not  a  lethargy  —  it  is 
beyond  our  power  to  make  one.  The  Lord,  the  Lord  from  his  high 
throne  above  us,  must  speak,  and  bid  the  tumult  be  still. 

But  when  the  psalmist  says  "  Thy  comforts,"  he  means  more  than 
comforts  of  which  God  is  the  author  or  giver.  God  is  the  author  and 
giver  of  all  our  comforts  —  of  all  the  earthly  comforts  that  surround 
us  ;  they  are  all  the  work  and  gift  of  his  gracious  hand.  Hence  he  is 
called  "  the  Father  of  mercies  "  —  of  mercies  generally  ;  as  our  church 
calls  him  in  her  General  Thanksgiving  —  "  the  Father  of  all  mercies." 
He  is  the  God,  the  Scriptures  tell  us,  "  of  all  consolation."  We  are 
to  understand  here  such  comforts  as  are  peculiarly  and  altogether  God's ; 
such  as  flow  at  once  from  God ;  not  from  him  through  creatures  to  us, 
but  from  him  immediately  to  us  without  the  intervention  of  creatures. 
The  comforts  that  we  get  from  his  attributes  —  from  meditating  on, 
and  what  we  call  reahzing  them :  the  comforts  we  get  from  his  prom- 
ises—  believing  and  hoping  in  him  ;  and  the  comforts  of  his  presence, 
he  drawing  near  to  our  souls  and  shining  into  them  —  we  knowing  he  is 
near  us,  conscious  of  it  by  the  light  and  happiness  and  renewed  strength 
within  us.  "  Thy  comforts  "  —  the  comforts  we  get  from  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ ;  from  looking  at  him  ;  considering  him;  thinking  of  his 
person,  and  offices,  and  blood,  and  righteousness,  and  intercession,  and 
exaltation,  and  glory,  and  his  second  coming  ;  our  meeting  him,  seeing 
him,  being  like  him,  "  Thy  comforts  "  —  the  comforts  which  como 
from  the  Holy  Spirit,  "  the  comforter ;  "  when  he  opens  the  Scriptures 
to  us,  or  speaks  to  us  through  ceremonies  or  ordinances,  or  witnesses 
■withm  us  of  our  adoption  of  God  ;  shining  in  on  his  own  work  of  grace 


206  TII3   ENGLISH   PCLPIT. 

ill  our  hearts  ;  enabling  us  to  see  tliat  work,  and  to  see  in  God's  pecu- 
liar, eternal  love  to  us  ;  not  opening  to  us  the  book  of  life,  and  show- 
ing us  our  names  there,  but  doing  something  that  makes  us  almost  as 
joyful  as  though  that  book  were  opened  to  us ;  showing  us  the  hand  of 
God  in  our  own  souls  —  his  converting,  saving  hand  —  his  hand  appre- 
hending us  as  his  own ;  making  us  feel,  as  it  were,  his  grasp  of  love, 
and  feel,  too,  that  it  is  a  grasp  which  he  shall  never  loosen. 

2.  Mark,  next,  the  character  of  these  comforts. 

They  correspond  with  the  psalmist's  affliction  or  sorrow.  Were  the 
sorrows  "  within  him  ;  "  not  supei-ficial,  but  low  down  (as  his  words 
seem  to  imply)  in  his  heart  ?  These  comforts  also  were  "  within  him;  " 
he  does  not  say  "  they  delight  me,"  but  "  they  delight  my  somZ"  — 
enter  deeply  within  me,  get  to  the  diseased,  wounded  part,  and  carry 
comfort  there.  And  were  his  sorrows  great  ?  was  he  suffering  from 
"  a  multitude  of  thoughts  ?  "  His  comforts  also  were  great  and 
numerous  ;  as  he  says  in  another  place,  "  I  will  go  into  thy  house  in 
the  multitude  of  thy  mercies  "  —  surrounded  with  mercies  —  carrying 
within  me  comforts  so  many  that  I  cannot  count  them.  You  remember 
how  he  prays  in  the  fifty-first  psalm  ;  when  he  supplicates  the  pardon 
of  his  sins,  he  beseeches  God  to  have  mercy  on  liim  "  according  to  the 
multitude  of  his  tender  mercies."  He  knew  his  sins  to  be  great ;  he 
wanted  a  pardon  as  great.  And  so  here,  brethren,  with  his  sorrows  ; 
they  were  many,  but  not  more  in  number  than  the  comforts  God  gave 
him.  He  could  find  something  in  God  to  set  against  every  distressing 
thought  within  him. 

In  some  versions  of  this  passage  this  idea  is  more  clearly  expressed. 
They  read  it  thus :  "  according  to  the  multitude  of  my  thoughts  within 
me,  thy  comforts  dehght  me."  "  My  troublous  thoughts  I  find  to  be 
the  measure  of  thy  consolations.  Thou  lookest  at  my  sorrows,  to  see 
how  many  and  how  great  they  are  ;  and  then  thou  takest  of  thy  com- 
forts, and  pourest  them  into  my  soul,  till  thy  comforts  equal  my  sorrows 
and  surpass  them."  Changing  disquietude,  not  simply  into  peace, 
observe,  but  into  pleasure  :  "  delight."  He  does  not  say,  "  Thy  com- 
forts strengthen,"  or  "  sustain,"  but  "  Thy  comforts  delight  my  soul." 
Here  is  another  blessed  truth  taught  us,  brethren.  We  can  soon 
empty  earthly  things  of  all  the  good  they  contain.  We  sometimes 
feel,  in  trouble,  as  though  we  had  got  from  earthly  friends  all  the  com* 
fort  they  could  give  us.  But  God  is  a  fountain  of  good  ;  there  is  no 
emptying  of  him.  In  him  there  is  a  well  of  consolation  ;  or  rather, 
many  wells  of  it  :  there  is  no  drawing  of  them  dry.  As  our  sufferings 
abound,  so  he  can  make  our  consolations  also  abound  ;  and  superabound, 
rising  above  our  sufferings,  so  that  we  are  ready  at  times  to  forget 


EASE   FOR   THE   TROUBLED   SPIRIT.  207 

them.  Does  he  send  heavy  and  deep  afflictions  ?  —  then  is  the  hour 
in  which  the  soul  often  discovers  for  the  first  time  how  rich  the  Lord  is 
in  consolation,  how  mighty  to  comfort,  as  he  had  found  him  before 
"  mighty  to  save."  Then,  dear  brethren,  is  the  time  to  look  upwards 
and  say  —  "Now,  Lord,  comfort  me;  now  let  the  long  looked-for 
abundance  of  thy  consolations  come.  Thou  hast  long  sustained,  long 
upheld  me  ;  where  should  I  have  been,  hadst  thou  not  ?  But  now, 
Lord,  now  in  this  hour  of  trouble,  '  delight  my  soul.'  There  is  joy  in 
thee — joy  in  thee  for  sinners  such  as  I  am  ;  now,  0  Lord,  let  my  soul 
receive  of  it.  It  has  long  thirsted,  long  waited  for  it ;  oh  !  let  it  come." 
And  this  joy,  brethren,  these  comforts,  let  me  add,  are  frequently 
imparted  to  the  behever  at  such  seasons  as  these  ;  when  he  least  expects 
them.  The  text  seems  to  intimate  this  also.  The  psalmist  says,  that 
it  was  in  the  very  thick  of  his  disquieting  thoughts,  "  in  the  multitude 
of  them,"  when  his  heart  was  full  of  them,  when  they  were  at  the  very 
worst,  and  he  was  suffering  most  from  them  —  it  was  then  that  the 
Lord's  comforts  came  and  dehghted  him.  And  look  at  the  eighteenth 
verse :  there  is  the  same  idea.  "  When  I  said.  My  foot  slippeth," 
when  I  thought  myself  in  the  very  act  of  falling,  "  thy  mercy,  0  Lord, 
held  me  up."  The  Lord's  mercies  and  the  Lord's  comforts  are  often 
the  nearest  to  us  when  we  think  them  the  farthest  away.  In  this 
sense,  as  well  as  in  many  others,  our  extremity  becomes  his  opportuni- 
ty. So  some  of  you,  brethren,  I  doubt  not,  have  found.  There  have 
been  times  when  you  have  thought,  and  thought  again,  on  this  point 
and  that,  and  all  to  no  purpose  ;  you  have  taken  counsel,  and  much 
counsel  with  your  soul,  but  the  only  fruit  of  it  has  been,  you  have  had 
sorrow  in  your  heart  daily ;  your  hope  has  failed  you,  your  spiritual 
strength  has  failed  you,  darkness  has  seemed  to  be  spreading  itself  all 
around  and  within  you.  Have  you  never  found,  brethren,  that  this 
has  been  the  time  God  has  chosen  for  sending  relief —  for  pouring  into 
your  souls  from  himself  such  beams  of  light  and  consolation  as  have 
made  your  whole  souls  wonder  and  rejoice  together  ?  There  was  no 
delight,  no  sensible  comfort  within  you,  while  the  crowd  was  collecting 
—  while  only  a  few  disquieting  thoughts  or  things  troubled  you  ;  but 
vrhen  the  crowd  ivas  collected  —  when  trouble  without,  or  trouble  with- 
in, or  perhaps  both  together  came  on  you  in  their  full  measure  and 
force,  then  God's  comforts  came  and  "  dehghted  your  souls."  In  the 
"  evening  time,"  when  you  thought  that  darkness  was  about  to  set  in, 
the  thick  darloiess  of  a  long  night,  in  the  "  evening  time,"  he  made  it 
"  light." 

So  it  has  been  with  us,  brethren,  and  so  probably  it  will  be  with  us 
many  times  again.     We  must  learn  to  strengthen  our  faith  from  our 


208  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

past  happy  experience  ;  learn  to  look  for  "  the  goodness  of  the  Lord" 
in  the  days  that  are  to  come,  just  as  we  have  experienced  it  in  the  days 
that  are  past.  While  we  make  this  our  prayer  —  "  Thou  hast  been  my 
help ;  leave  me  not,  neither  forsake  me,  0  God  of  my  salvation  ;  "  let 
us  make  this  our  resolution —  "  Thou  hast  been  my  help,  0  Lord  :  — 
therefore  in  the  shadow  of  thy  wings  will  I  rejoice." 

Is  there  a  man  here  who  is  suffering  from  "  thoughts  within  him," 
about  which  I  have  scarcely  said  one  word  ?  a  man  whom  God  by  his 
Spirit  has  made  to  think  of  his  ways,  and  who  at  this  moment  is  dis- 
quieted with  thoughts  concerning  the  sinfulness  of  those  ways,  and  the 
end  to  which  they  may  lead  him  ?  Is  there  any  man  here  whose  chief 
sorrows  are  sorrows  about  a  guilty  soul,  and  what  he  thinks  a  near 
opening  hell  ?  Oh !  if  there  is  such  a  man  here,  (and  would  that  these 
walls  contained  hundreds  of  such  !)  I  would  say  to  him  from  this  text 
—  not  one  atom  of  comfort,  real  safe  comfort,  can  you  ever  get,  till 
you  look  out  of  yourself,  and  entirely  out  of  yourself  for  it.  You 
want  pardon,  you  want  help,  you  want  hope,  you  want  salvation;  dear 
brethren,  you  may  think  about  these  things  till  you  drop  into  the  grave, 
but  you  will  never  get  one  of  them  till  you  have  found  out  that  mere 
thinking  will  never  do  —  will  never  turn  a  guilty  soul  into  a  pardoned 
one,  will  never  take  off  from  a  man's  guilty  head  the  burden  of  his 
great  multitude  of  sins,  will  never  close  an  open  hell,  nor  open  a  shut- 
up  heaven.  These  things  are  all  made  over  —  the  blessings  you  want 
are  aU  made  over  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  they  are  dwelling  in  him 
for  you :  and  there  is  no  way  of  getting  them  but  by  looking  to  him 
for  them,  making  him  your  pardon,  him  your  help,  him  your  hope,  him 
your  salvation.  It  is  a  mercy  that  you  have  been  led  to  think  ;  it  is 
thinking,  that  through  God's  mercy  has  brought  you  acquainted  with 
your  real  condition.  It  has  discovered  to  you  the  evil ;  it  has  done  its 
work.  But  it  can  do  no  more  than  that,  brethren.  It  is  looking 
upwards  —  it  is  believing  —  that  must  bring  you  the  remedy ;  a  going 
out  of  yourselves  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  a  turning  of  thoughtful- 
ness  into  prayerfulness ;  a  turning  of  painful  musings  within  you,  into 
earnest  supplications  to  that  Savior  who  is  above  you.  It  is  making 
him,  to  your  souls,  the  spring  of  all  you  want,  and  all  you  desire. 


SERMON    XVIII. 

THE  DOCTRINE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT. 


BY   REV.    W.    M.    BUNTING, 

OF    BALI  r AX. 


"  The  precious  blood  of  Christ."—!  Peter  L  19. 


The  atonement  is  exhibited  in  Scripture,  not  only  as  the  procuring 
cause  of  sanctificatiou,  but  as  the  most  powerful  of  motives  to  personal 
hohness.  The  notion  that  it  operates  and  avails  wholly,  or  chiefly,  in 
the  way  of  persuasion,  to  the  exclusion  of  its  propitiatory  value,  is  one 
which  is  unsound  and  Socinian ;  its  primary  effect  is  in  the  mind  of 
God,  engaging  him  to  forgive  sin,  and  by  his  Holy  Spirit  to  restore 
the  forgiven  sinner ;  but  yet,  by  turning  him  to  a  consideration  and 
regard  of  the  righteousness  which  does  so,  it  undoubtedly  exerts  a 
secondary  influence  upon  the  mind  of  the  sinner,  animating  his  faith, 
attracting  his  love,  and  stimulating  him  to  duty  and  obedience.  There- 
fore to  trust  in  Christ  as  an  Jill-sufficient  sacrifice  is  not  only  the  author- 
itative condition  of  God's  maintaining  his  fixed  design  in  the  salvation 
of  the  sinner ;  but  that  adherence  to  Christ,  and  affection  for  him, 
which  such  a  faith  necessarily  includes  in  it,  has  a  natural  tendency  to 
assist  in  maintaining,  by  its  continued  agency,  habits  and  dispositions 
to  holiness  in  the  mind  of  the  Christian  believer ;  who,  by  contempla- 
ting the  atonement  thus  set  before  him,  is  led,  in  some  degree,  to 
appreciate  the  value  of  its  offers  ;  and  to  draw  such  inferences  with 
regard  to  the  immensity  of  the  blessings  it  secures,  as  well  as  to  the 
demerits  of  that  moral  evil  which  it  expiates,  as  greatly  to  heighten 
his  desires  after  the  former,  and  deepen  his  abhorrence  of  the  latter. 

And  this  is  the  view  which  the  apostle  takes  of  the  words  in  con- 
nection with  the  text,  "  Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am  holy.  And  if  ye  call 
on  the  Father,"  —  if  your  hopes  are  spiritual,  consistent,  acceptable, 
—  "  who  without  respect  of  persons  judgeth  according  to  every  man's 
work,  pass  the  time  of  your  sojourning  here  in  fear:  "  such  is  the 
practical  exhortation  of  the  apostle.  And  this  is  the  grand  motive 
which  he  exhibits :  "  Forasmuch  as  ye  know  that  ye  were  not  redeemed 
with  corruptible  things,  as  silver  and  gold,  from  your  vain  conversation 
received  by  tradition  from  your  fathers  ;  but  with  the  precious  blood 
of  Christ."  And  I  hope,  in  dependence  upon  your  prayers,  that  it 
may  tend  in  some  measure  to  promote  your  growth  in  holiness,  and 


210  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

other  valuable  objects  in  the  Christian  life,  if  we  expatiate  for  a  few 
moments  upon  the  ineffable  and  inestimable  preciousness  of  that  blood, 
as  it  presents  itself  under  several  separate,  essential,  and  enliancing 
considerations. 

Suffer  me,  however,  to  remind  jou  that  our  approach  to  this  sub- 
ject should  be  reverential,  tranquil,  and  deliberate ;  it  is  a  subject 
for  much  thought  and  much  fear.  Let  us  praj  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
may  fill  our  minds  with  this  truth ;  that  he  will  prepare  our  hearts  to 
receive  the  moral  and  practical  directions  it  suggests,  and  that  he  may 
enable  us  to  form  a  proper  estimate  of  the  preciousness  and  value  of 
the  atoning  blood,  as  the  foundation  of  all  our  present  hohness  and 
happiness,  and  of  all  our  future  hopes. 

I.  Let  us  endeavor  to   estimate   it  in   its   adaptation   to 

ALL  THE   WANTS   OF  MAN,   AND    ITS    ANSWERABLENESS     TO     ALL  THE 

properties  OF  God. 

We  must  admit  it  to  be  important,  to  be  necessary,  and  to  have  pre- 
cisely the  relation  which  it  should  bear  to  our  interests  and  hopes. 
The  alternative  to  the  atonement  would  not  have  been  God's  dishonor, 
but  it  would  have  been  man's  ruin.  The  redemption  of  the  soul  is 
precious  ;  and  therefore  the  redemption  of  Christ  must  be  so.  Man 
of  himself  has  wronged,  and  would  wrong  God  by  his  rebellion  ;  he  is 
a  rebel  against  him ;  and  if  ever  that  rebel  was  to  be  forgiven,  if 
ever  Jehovah,  —  if  I  may  so  say,  and  I  think  I  speak  upon  the  author- 
ity and  with  the  warrant  of  the  Scripture,  —  if  ever  Jehovah  was  to 
be  justified  in  forgiving  him,  it  could  but  be  by  means  of  an  atone- 
ment, adequate,  appropriate,  and  acceptable. 

Let  us  propose  to  ourselves  the  necessity  of  this  sacrifice  ;  and  of 
course  the  foundation  of  the  value  of  the  sacrificial  blood  must  be 
more  particularly  considered  and  ascertained.  We  will  endeavor,  then, 
in  the  manner  of  the  great  apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  to  reason  out  of 
the  Scriptures  upon  this  point,  not  independently  of  their  principles 
and  tenor,  but  to  reason  out  of  them,  by  openly  alleging,  demonstra- 
ting, and  explaining  that  Christ  must  needs  suffer. 

He  who  made  man  has  an  indisputable  right  to  govern  him.  Of 
course  he  does  so  in  conformity  with  his  own  nature,  which  is  infinitely 
holy,  just,  and  good.  He  has  an  essential,  unalterable  right  in  him,  to 
uphold  his  government  over  him,  and  to  compel  his  creatures  to  submit 
to  him.  Of  course  the  principles  of  his  government  will  be  embodied 
in  a  well-understood  law,  which  will  be  in  its  turn  the  basis  of  his 
practical  administration.  We  learn  from  Scripture  that  this  law  was, 
in  its  origin,  essentially  a  spiritual  law  ;.  and  as  the  natural  effect  of  a 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.  211 

cause,  "vvliat  his  law  "was,  that  his  government  would  be  also.  To  this 
law  was  attached  the  condition  of  eternal  life  ;  that  is  to  say,  by  the 
most  scrupulous  obedience  to  it  man  was  to  be  confirmed  for  ever  in 
the  life  which  he  then  had,  with  the  addition  of  all  that  was  capable  of 
increasing  and  enhancing  liis  enjoyments  in  it ;  while  the  penalty  of 
breaking  it  was  the  forfeiture  of  all  his  hopes  of  immortality  and 
never-ending  joy,  which  must  of  necessity  take  in  the  idea  of  personal 
snifering,  in  order  to  vindicate  the  perfect  proportion  existing  between 
the  promised  recompense  of  obedience,  and  the  threatened  penalty  of 
transgression ;  for  the  loss  of  immortality  alone  would  be  no  propor- 
tionate or  correspondent  penalty  to  his  disobedience. 

Mark  the  three  immutable  and  indisputable  principles  in  this  law ! 
It  was  the  express  condition  of  the  divine  engagement.  It  was  the 
basis  and  support  of  the  divine  government.  It  was  intended  as  a 
manifestation  and  expression  of  the  divine  perfection. 

Plainly,  then,  by  the  veracity  of  God,  to  take  the  lowest  view  of  the 
subject,  by  his  credit  as  the  Creator  and  Governor  of  the  world,  sway- 
ing the  affections  of  an  intelligent  and  upright  creature ;  and  by  the 
glory  of  his  unchanging  nature,  he  was  concerned  in  the  enforcement 
of  that  law,  by  all  these  he  was  pledged  to  the  conferment  of  eternal 
life,  —  for  it  is  important  to  consider  that  man  was  then  rather  in  an 
elementary  than  in  a  confirmed  state  of  things,  —  by  all  these  consid- 
erations or  principles  he  was  pledged  to  the  conferment  of  eternal 
life  on  such  as  continued  obedient  to  the  end  of  their  trial :  and  to 
the  abjudication  of  its  opposite,  eternal  death,  with  whatever  it  implies, 
whether  of  personal  and  bodily  suffering,  or  of  the  simple  loss  of  immor- 
tahty  and  joy,  to  those  who  transgressed  it.  Equally  unrighteousness 
is  impossible  with  God,  either  to  punish  the  innocent,  or  to  pretermit 
the  punishment  of  the  offender.  No !  the  sad  fact  is,  that  Avith  every 
thing  in  favor  of  his  obedience,  his  capacities,  his  circumstances,  his 
motives,  the  powerful  bias  of  his  divine  destination,  his  noble  and 
attractive  hopes,  with  every  thing,  in  fact,  in  favor  of  his  obedience, 
man  transgressed. 

Is  God  then  unrighteous  that  taketh  vengeance  ?  God  forbid.  There 
is  every  thing  in  God,  there  is  every  thing  in  what  belongs  to,  and  is 
associated  with  the  idea  of  him,  that  forbids,  precludes,  repels,  such  a 
thought.  The  truth  of  his  word,  the  rectitude  of  his  administration, 
the  holiness  of  his  nature  —  which  implies  universal  righteousness,  — 
all  this  not  only  justified,  to  speak  in  the  manner  of  man  himself,  to 
whom  the  assumption  has  reference,  but  rendered  it  absolutely  needful 
that  ho  should  withhold  the  remission  of  the  life  that  was  forfeited ;  or, 
what  comes  to  the  same  thing,  of  the  death  which  was  due. 


212  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

But  now  it  was  for  liis  own  wisdom  and  sovereignty  to  determine  in 
what  manner  the  full  amount  of  satisfaction,  owing  to  justice,  should  be 
rendered.  And  here  it  was  that  his  own  mercy  interposed  with  the 
■wonderful  work  of  the  propitiation,  so  contrived  that  sin  should  not  go 
unpunished,  but  that  the  sinner  should  be  spared :  that  a  substitute 
should,  if  possible,  be  found  capable  of  glancing  at  his  own  design, 
and,  by  his  peculiar  merit,  paying  the  penalty  incurred  by  the  offender. 
The  whole  race  of  man  is  comprehended  and  contemplated  in  the  per- 
son of  Adam.  And  only  granting,  for  this  must  be  conceded,  that 
the  eternal  death  of  innumerable  finite  persons  may  be  commuted  into 
the  temporal  death  of  one  infinite  person — ■  "  Enough,"  cries  Justice, 
"  if  condemned  millions  are  to  be  restored  to  their  forfeited  capacity 
and  probation "  —  for  this  is  all  that  is  included  in  the  idea  of  an 
atonement  (there  is  nothing  in  it  beyond  this,)  "  if  condemned  mil- 
lions are  to  be  restored  to  their  state  of  probation  for  eternal  life,  and 
to  have  their  hopes  and  opportunities  given  them  back  again,  with 
grace  to  influence  them  to  a  right  choice  for  the  future  —  give  me  the 
blood,  the  life,  the  death  !  "  for  these  terms  are  all  compatible  ;  "  which 
render  the  sacrificial  offering  of  one  worthy  and  adequate  substitute 
a  satisfaction  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  race."  And  such  a  satisfaction 
■was  the  righteousness  of  Christ :  "  For  it  became  him  for  whom  are  all 
things,  and  by  whom  are  all  things,  in  bringing  many  sons  unto  glory, 
to  make  the  Captain  of  their  salvation  perfect  through  suffering." 

He,  who  was  the  Author  and  end  of  their  being,  the  Maker  and 
Judge  of  mankind  ;  "  for  whose  pleasure  they  were  and  are  created  ;" 
and  who  might  have  justified  himself  in  their  condemnation  after  their 
fall,  he  justly  requires  that  in  that  new  and  living  way,  under  which, 
in  his  own  mercy,  he  proposes  to  redeem  their  lives  from  destruction, 
his  honor  should  be  equally  consulted  and  procured  by  the  vicarious 
death  of  the  Redeemer.  And  here  we  think  the  argument  of  the 
great  Dr.  Owen  on  this  point  is  referable.  "  If  it  were  just  of  God 
to  demand  such  a  satisfaction,  if  it  were  just  of  him  to  punish,  of 
course  the  punishment  was  incapable  of  being  dispensed  with."  And 
we  have  the  incidental  testimony  of  the  Scripture,  not  only  as  to  the 
fact,  but  also  as  to  the  necessity  of  the  atonement,  laid  before  us  in 
such  a  manner  as  may  render  the  great  propitiatory  sacrifice  more 
strikingly  valuable  than  the  most  ample  and  copious  direct  testimony 
upon  the  subject ;  and  mark  how  !  Did  our  blessed  Savior  pray  to 
his  Father  in  the  garden,  that  the  cup  might  not  pass  from  him  ?  No, 
his  prayer  was,  "  0  my  Father,  if  it  be  possible  let  this  cup  pass  from 
me."  And  was  that  cup  still  imposed  upon  him?  Yea,  the  cup -was 
drank  to  its  very  dregs.     The  inference  is,  that  it  was  impossible  for 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.  213 

the  cup  to  pass  from  liim,  and  yet  the  cup  of  the  wrath  of  God  was 
to  pass  into  the  hands  of  him  who  desired  to  drink  it.  And  the  apos- 
tle declares  and  asserts,  that  "  God  set  forth  Christ  to  be  a  propitia- 
tion through  faith  in  his  blood,  to  declare  liis  righteousness  for  the 
remission  of  sins  that  arc  past,  through  the  forbearance  of  God;" 
proving  that  the  sacred  Majesty  of  heaven  was  wilUng  to  justify  the 
believer  in  Jesus ;  without  whose  atoning  sacrifice  (the  inference  is 
irresistible,)  there  would  have  been  no  declaration  of  his  righteous- 
ness ;  his  righteousness  would  have  been  obscured,  dishonored  and 
withdrawn  from  the  view  of  men,  and  there  would  have  been  no  moral 
impression  made  upon  the  intelligent  universe. 

Can  God  pardon  sin  upon  any  other  terms  ?  Observe  two  remarka- 
ble passages  in  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  which  we  think  establish 
this  fact :  for  we  are  rather  eager  for  the  truth  than  for  our  own  assump- 
tion, and  desire  not  to  overstate  our  argument.  In  the  ninth,  chapter 
the  apostle  says,  "  For  Christ  is  not  entered  into  the  holy  places  made 
with  hands,  which  are  the  figures  of  the  true,  but  into  heaven  itself, 
now  to  appear  in  the  presence  of  God  for  us ;  nor  yet  that  he  should 
ofier  himself  often,  as  the  high  priest  entereth  into  the  holy  place  every 
year,  with  the  blood  of  others  :  for  then  must  he  often  have  suffered 
since  the  foundation  of  the  world."  Now,  how  does  this  appear  ?  The 
apostle  draws  no  inference,  he  uses  no  argument,  he  makes  no  appeal 
to  the  judgment,  there  is  nothing  in  the  passage  which  shows  it  to  be  a 
conclusion  from  former  premises  ;  but  he  lays  down  at  once  the  hypoth- 
esis of  the  necessity  of  the  atonement ;  he  assumes  that  there  must  be 
an  offering  for  sin  world  without  end,  unless  the  Savior's  atonement  be 
perfect  and  complete  ;  that  unless  by  "  this  one  oblation  he  for  ever 
perfected  them  that  are  sanctified,"  it  must  be  a  matter  of  course,  that 
in  order  to  bear  away  the  sins  of  the  world  from  past  and  future  gene- 
rations, he  must  have  suffered  often  from  the  foundation  of  the  world  to 
the  end  of  it.  It  is  impossible  to  understand,  appreciate,  and  admit 
the  argument  of  the  apostle  in  this  passage,  except  by  the  assumption 
we  are  now  mahitaining. 

And  then,  in  the  next  chapter,  he  says,  "  For  if  we  sin  wilfullj-,  after 
that  we  have  received  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  "  —  and  what  is  the 
truth  here  referred  to,  but  the  scriptural  truth  of  the  atoning  sacrifice, 
of  the  atoning  sacrifice  of  Christ — "  If  we  sin  wilfully,"  with  regard 
to  this  known  truth,  in  the  deliberate  and  ultimate  rejection  of  it ;  if  we 
ultimately,  wilfully,  and  deliberately  reject  it ;  not  merely  Avillingly,  for 
no  man  sins  unwillingly ;  but  if  we  wilfully  and  deliberately  sin,  in  the 
rejection  of  that  truth  —  in  the  great  truth  of  the  atonement,  the  all- 
sufficient  atonement  —  "  after  that  we  have  received  the  knowledge  of 


214  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

the  truth,  there  remaineth  no  more  sacrifice  for  sins  "  for  those  who 
thus  -wilfully  reject  it.  But  there  is  no  argument,  for  we  observe  he 
immediately  passes  over  to  the  conse(|uences,  the  thing  is  assumed  as 
true,  "  there  reuiaineth  no  more  sacrifice  for  sins ;"  but,  as  a  matter 
of  course,  there  is  "  a  certain  fearful  looking-for  of  judgment  and  fiery 
indignation."  Here  the  apostle  obviously  assumes  the  sin  of  rejecting 
the  atonement  of  Christ ;  he  first  of  all  states,  "  that  there  remaineth 
no  more  sacrifice  for  sins,"  no  other  atonement;  then  he  does  not  pro- 
ceed to  demonstrate,  but  assumes,  that  if  a  man  sins  in  the  rejection 
of  that  sacrifice,  the  consequence  is,  an  absence  of  that  interposition 
between  him  and  God  which  such  a  sacrifice  involves  in  it,  and  the  cer- 
tain damnation  of  him  who  so  situates  himself:  "  if  there  remaineth  no 
more  sacrifice  for  sin,  there  remaineth  nothing  but  a  certain  fearful 
looking-for  of  judgment  and  fiery  indignation." 

Well  then,  brethren,  God  might  have  justified  himself  in  our  con- 
demnation ;  but  he  was  willing,  according  to  the  emphasis  of  the  gospel, 
to  glorify  himself  in  our  redemption  ;  and  this  he  could  only  do  by  the 
vicarious  death  of  the  Redeemer. 

We  cannot  but  be  struck  with  the  coincidence  between  pardon  and 
justification,  as  exhibited  in  the  New  Testament.  Pardon  we  conceive 
to  be  quite  peculiar  to  God.  It  is  there  said  to  be  justification  ;  the 
meaning  of  this  may  be  either  —  that  pardon  through  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ  places  the  pardoned  man  in  the  condition  of  the  just,  or  that 
God  pardons  him  justly.  That  the  pardoned  man  is  so  forgiven,  so 
entirely  divested  from  that  time  forward  of  blame,  on  the  condition  of 
his  faithfulness,  of  his  continued  faithfulness  in  Christ  —  so  entirely, 
that  God  puts  no  more  to  his  account  his  past  sins,  but  treats  him  with 
favor  and  complacency,  and  looks  upon  him  as  righteous,  accounts  him 
as  righteous  ;  this  is  one  sense  in  which  pardon  is  justification.  In  the 
other  sense  in  which  we  conceive  the  expression  may  have  a  similar 
meaning,  we  suppose  it  to  infer  that  God  pardons  him  justly  ;  that  is, 
he  pardons  him  in  his  own  way,  on  his  own  terms,  on  the  terms  of  the 
propitiation  to  the  honor  of  his  justice,  "  for  he  is  faithful  and  just  to 
forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness." 

But,  then,  pardon  is  not  justification,  either  such  as  to  place  the  sin- 
ner in  the  condition  of  the  just,  or  to  reflect  honor  upon  the  glory, 
righteousness,  and  excellencies  of  the  Deity,  except  upon  the  terms  of 
the  propitiation  ;  for  God  declares  his  righteousness  through  the  propi- 
tiation of  the  blood  of  Christ.  Oh,  precious  then,  incalculably  precious 
is  that  blood,  without  the  shedding  of  which  there  is  no  remission  ;  and 
after  the  shedding  of  which  there  remaineth  no  more  sacrifice  for  sin  ; 
he  who  rejects  which  has  no  other  hope,  no  other  alternative,  and  can 


DOCTRINE   OF   THE   ATONEMENT.  215 

look  only  for  judgment  and  fierj  indignation,  and  liis  doom,  though 
dreadful,  is  deserved  :  -n-hich  blood  -wanting  jou  tvould  have  perished, 
and  which,  trifled  with  and  wasted,  you  will,  jour  punishment  bemg 
dreadfully  aggravated^  in  the  latter  case  by  the  sensibility  of  your 
neglect,  aggravated  into  an  unspeakable  retribution.  "Well  may  we, 
then,  viewing  the  necessity  of  the  case,  exclaim  with  the  apostle,  pre- 
cious blood ! 

II.  I  EXHORT  YOU  TO  ESTIMATE  THE  PRECIOUSNESS  OF  THE  BLOOD 
BY  ITS  INTRINSIC  MERIT. 

Such  a  sacrifice  as  this  was  adequate,  and  adapted  to  the  case. — 
There  is  a  passage  in  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  with  which  you  are 
most  of  you  familiar,  so  well  illustrating  this  point,  that  we  may  be 
excused  for  confining  ourselves  to  the  consideration  of  it :  "  Por  if 
the  blood  of  bulls,  and  of  goats,  and  the  ashes  of  an  heifer  sprinkling 
the  unclean,  sanctifieth  to  the  purifying  of  the  flesh,  hoAV  much  more 
shall  the  blood  of  Christ,  who  through  the  eternal  Spirit  offered  him- 
self without  spot  to  God,  purge  your  conscience  from  dead  works,  to 
serve  the  living  God  ?"  Here  you  perceive  the  intrinsic  merit  of  the 
sacrifice  is  ascribed  to  the  blood  of  Christ. 

There  are  two  or  three  representations  of  this  subject,  which  may 
tend  to  increase  your  ideas  of  its  meritoriousness  and  value. 

1.  The  first  circumstance  prominent  in  this  description  of  our 
Savior's  sacrifice,  is  that  it  is  a  direct  oblation  to  God.  Christ  offered 
himself  to  God  as  a  sacrificial  offering  for  sin.  This  fact  is  not  only 
stated  frequently,  but  always  when  reference  is  made  to  Christ  as  a 
sacrifice  in  the  New  Testament.  It  is  recognized  too  in  all  our  stand- 
ards of  theology,  as  indicative  of  a  proper  sacrifice  ;  it  is  repeated  with 
great  frequency  in  the  liturgy  of  the  Church  of  England  —  in  aU 
which  it  is  shown  to  be  a  proper  sacrifice  and  oblation  to  God,  and  not 
a  gratuitous  gift.  It  may  have  been  spontaneous.,  it  may  have  been 
voluntary  ;  but  still,  if  the  Savior  would  become  a  substitute,  if  he 
would  become  an  offering  for  the  guilt  of  the  condemned,  he  must 
needs  suffer. 

2.  And  this  oblation  and  offering  himself  to  God,  contained  an  ample 
recognition  of  the  authority  of  God's  laio,  and  of  his  right  to  imnish 
transgressors.  There  is  an  emphasis,  both  in  this  epistle,  and  in  that 
of  the  Eomans,  laid  by  the  apostle  on  the  word  obedience  in  each  case, 
implying  Christ's  obedience  to  the  law,  not  his  active  obedience  in  his 
life,  but  the  reference  is  plainly  to  his  sacrificial  offering  or  oblation  ; 
and  this  act  of  obedience  to  God's  law  contains  a  recognition  of  his 
authority  and  right,  and  hence,  in  the  language  of  the  prophet  Isaiah, 


216  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

"  God  is  well  pleased  with  him,"  because  of  his  obedience  ;  and  because 
in  that  act  he  magnified  his  law  ;  and  made  it  incomparably  honorable 
in  the  sight  of  the  universe. 

3.  Another  circumstance  prominent  in  the  description  of  the  Savior's 
sacrifice,  is  the  intelligence  and  voluntariness  of  the  victim.  Christ 
offered  himself  to  God  through  the  eternal  Spirit.  This  refers  possi- 
bly, and  may  be  commonly  understood  to  apply  to  his  sacerdotal  func- 
tions, to  the  fact  that  the  priest  and  the  victim  are  one  and  the  same 
person  ;  or  it  may  be  considered  as  a  comparison  instituted  between  the 
figurative  sacrifice  and  the  intelligent  victim  referred  to  :  "  For  if  the 
blood  of  bulls  and  of  goats,  and  the  ashes  of  an  heifer  sprinkling  the 
unclean,  sanctifieth  "  —  if  the  involuntary,  compelled,  reluctant  victim 
sanctifieth,  "  how  much  more  shall  the  blood  of  Christ,  who  through 
the  eternal  Spirit  ofiered  himself"  —  by  virtue  and  support  of  the 
eternal  Spirit  that  is,  his  intelligent  nature  —  "  to  God  purge  your 
conscience  from  dead  works  to  serve  the  living  God  ?  "  You  need  not 
to  be  told  that  these  figurative  victims  were  involuntary,  or  that  if  they 
had  apprehended  the  nature  of  the  doom  to  which  they  were  devoted, 
they  would  have  recoiled  from  it.  Every  school-boy  is  acquainted  with 
the  fact,  that  among  the  Romans,  whose  system  of  superstition  was  a 
corruption  of  the  Jewish  sacrificial  system,  there  existed  a  belief  that 
it  was  a  most  ominous  and  inauspicious  circumstance,  if  the  unwilling- 
ness of  the  victim  rendered  it  difficult  to  bind  it  to  the  altar  :  but  there 
was  nothing  of  this  sort  in  the  case  of  our  Savior.  No !  he  was  an 
intelligent,  cheerful,  deliberate  victim  ;  what  he  did  he  did  not  by  com- 
pulsion, but  by  choice  ;  he  freely  made  this  recognition  of  God's  author- 
ity, and  this  oblation  to  God's  justice  ;  he  lay  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Father,  and,  therefore,  when  he  felt  the  beatings  of  his  heart,  his  own 
responded  to  them.  He  came  down  from  heaven  ;  he  was  not  hurled 
from  his  throne,  he  was  not  dragged  like  the  creature-victim ;  "  he 
came  down  from  heaven  for  us  men,  and  for  our  salvation,"  and  he 
would  re-ascend  up  into  heaven  by  no  other  way  than  that  of  the  cross  : 
and  being  there,  we  see  in  him,  not  the  unwilling  victim  bound  with 
cords  to  the  horns  of  the  altar,  kicking  against  the  fatal  and  sanguin- 
ary knife  :  but  the  yielding,  uncomplaining,  cheerful,  self-devoted  sac- 
rifice, which  is  the  grand  fact  on  which  its  preciousness  rests ;  because 
he  gave  himself  to  God,  the  Savior's  sacrifice  was  one  of  a  sweet 
smelling  savor  to  him. 

4.  Another  circumstance  —  one  which  we  believe  was  prefigured  by 
the  sacrifices  under  the  law,  and  one  which  substantiates  the  sacrifice 
of  Christ  to  have  been  a  proper  sacrifice  —  is  that  he  was  an  unblem- 
ished victim.     In  consequence  of  his  miraculous  conception  by  the 


DOCTRINE    OF   THE    ATONEMENT.  217 

Holy  Ghost,  he  escaped  the  common  contagion  of  mankind  ;  'and  his 
personal  character  in  after  life  was  holy,  for  "  he  was  harmless  and 
undefijed,  and  separate  from  sinners,"  and  thus  he  passed  to  the  altar 
an  unblemished,  victim.  And  because  Jesus  Christ  was  righteous,  on 
this  ground,  which  was  indispensable,  as  without  it  he  could  not  have 
offered  himself -to  God,  his  sacrifice  became  an  acceptable  propitiation 
for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world. 

5.  But  the.  most  prominent  and  important  circumstance  in  this  pas- 
sage has  reference  to  the  value  of  the  victim  through  his  personal  union 
zvith  the  Deity :  Christ,  through  the  eternal  Spirit,  offered  himself  to 
God.  I  put  it  to  you  whether  any  proof  can  be  drawn  from  Scripture, 
of  any  personal  and  distinct  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  third  per- 
son in  the  adorable  Godhead,  in  the  atoning  sacrifice  of  the  Savior  ; 
for  that  notion  involves  in  it  a  mischievous  error.  AVe  can  only  come 
to  the  conclusion  of  the  presence  and  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the 
person  of  Christ ;  contrary  to  the  assumption  of  Dr.  Macknight,  that 
the  offering  must  be  first  made  in  heaven  before  it  is  comijlete  ;  that  it 
could  never  be  offered  to  God  until  Christ  had  passed  into  the  heavenly 
place,  and  appeared  before  him.  It  is  true  that  the  Spirit  had  an 
agency  in  the  offering  ;  but  our  assumption  is,  that  it  was  by  the  exer- 
cise, and  not  by  any  distinct  personal  operation  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  that 
he  was  quickened  and  raised  from  the  dead  ;  and  there  is  no  discord 
between  that  assumption  and  the  opinions  of  the  most  sound  and  wise 
of  men  :  it  harmonizes  with  the  language  of  the  Church  of  England 
in  her  thirty-first  article,  "  Of  the  one  oblation  of  Christ  finished  upon 
the  cross.''''  "  The  offering  of  Christ  once  made,  is  that  perfect  redemp- 
tion, propitiation,  and  satisfaction  for  all  the  sins  of  the  whole  world, 
both  original  and  actual :  and  there  is  none  other  satisfaction  for  sin, 
but  that  alone."  And  we  are  bold  to  assert,  that  there  is  no  proof  in 
all  the  Scripture  of  any  person  of  the  Godhead  represented  as  person- 
ally distinct,  or  of  any  distinct  official  agency  of  the  Spirit,  in  the  aton- 
ing sacrifice  of  our  Lord. 

The  expression  of  this  text,  therefore,  reveals  the  undoubted  presence 
of  the  I>ivinity.  And  there  are  many  parallel  passages  to  this  effect ; 
as  for  instance,  in  the  opening  of  the  epistle  to  the  Romans,  the  apos- 
tle, speaking  of  Jesus  Christ,  declares  "  that  he  was  made  of  the  seed 
of  David  according  to  the  flesh,  and  declared  according  to  the  Spirit 
of  holiness  "  —  according  to  the  divine  nature  which  resided  within 
him  —  "  to  be  the  Son  of  God  ;  "  and  was  declared  to  be  such,  "  by 
his  resurrection  from  the  dead."  And  why  ?  Because  he  rose  from 
the  dead  by  his  own  power,  by  the  exercise  of  that  spirit  which  resided 
within  him.     And  perhaps  the  apostle  makes  the  same  reference,  in  liis 


218  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

epistle  to  Timothy,  when  he  declares  that  God  the  Deity,  "  was  mani- 
fest in  the  flesh,  but  justified  only  in  the  Spirit."  There  was  then  a 
manifestation  of  the  Deity  in  mortal  nature ;  that  Deity  vindicating 
itself,  and  justifying  itself  as  Deity  and  as  God,  on  several  occasions 
for  practical  important  purposes,  putting  forth  its  divine  energy  and 
power.  And  so  says  the  apostle  here,  "  Jesus  Christ,  by  the  eternal 
Spirit,"  which  has  been  already  explained,  by  virtue,  by  full  virtue,  or 
rather  by  support,  by  the  special, supernatural  support,  of  his  indwell- 
ing divine  nature,  oifered  himself  to  God.  And  I  need  not  tell  you 
that  his  was  a  sacrifice  which  justice  required,  that  it  was  one  which 
divine  mercy  only  could  have  provided,  and  which  a  divine  person 
alone  could  have  rendered.  The  Lord  of  Glory  was  crucified  !  The 
Prince  of  life  was  killed  !  The  Almighty's  fellow  was  offered  up. — 
"  Awake,  0  sword,  against  my  shepherd  ;  and  against  the  man  that  is 
my  fellow,  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts."  God  shed  his  blood  for  his 
church.  Well,  therefore,  may  we  arrive  at  the  conclusion  of  the  apos- 
tle, that  "  this  is  the  blood  of  Christ,  who  through  the  eternal  Spirit 
ofiered  himself  without  spot  to  God,  which  shall  purge  our  conscience 
from  dead  works  to  serve  the  hving  God."  "  Worthy  is  the  Lamb  ; " 
therefore,  precious  is  his  blood ! 

III.  Compute  the  value  of  this  precious  blood  with  reference  to 
THE  PERSONAL  VALUE  OF  THE  Savior.  Compute  the  value  of  the  sac- 
rifice with  reference  to  Chrisfs  own  deity. 

Witli  this  we  can  never  thoroughly  sympathize;  but  we  may  form 
some  faint  conception  of  it,  we  may  be  impressed  with  the  highest, 
sense  of  it  at  which  we  can  arrive.  How  precious  to  himself  was  his 
blood!  How  dear  his  life!  and,  therefore,  how  expensive  his  death! 
And  now,  to  furnish  you  with  some  simple  thoughts  on  the  subject. — 
Remember  that  he  retained,  that  he  could  not  but  retain,  even  when  in 
the  flesh  —  his  divine  and  spiritual  nature.  And,  therefore,  he  could 
not  but  be  sensible  of  the  transcendent  dignity  of  it.  Indeed,  what 
dignifies  his  sacrifice  Is,  that  he  could  measure  the  stoop  he  made,  that 
he  could  behold  the  distance  he  travelled,  and  the  humiliation  to  which 
he  bowed.  And  hence,  not  seldom  during  his  intercourse  with  his 
disciples,  and  with  men  upon  earth  —  although  it  was  not  his  general 
habit  —  when  it  became  him  he  broke  in  upon  his  general  habit,  and 
vindicated  his  divinity  for  the  very  purpose  of  exalting  and  commend- 
ing his  love,  for  the  purpose  of  expressly  impressing  the  minds  of  those 
around  him  with  the  fact  of  his  consciousness  of  the  Godhead  dwelhng 
in  him, —  and  his  own  consciousness,  therefore,  of  the  infinite  generos- 


DOCTRINE   OF   THE   ATONEMENT.  219 

ity  of  the  stoop  which  he  made  for  the  miseries  and  sins  of  liis 
creatures. 

AVhen  he  became  man,  he  was  endowed  with  all  the  innocent  pecu- 
liarities, affections,  and  instincts  of  human  nature,  and  the  strongest, 
instinct  of  human  nature  we  know  is  self  preservation,  the  love  of  life. 
And  can  it  be  supposed  for  a  moment,  that  these  feelings  were  less 
acute  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  than  in  ordinary  men  ?  they  must  have 
been  the  reverse,  because  in  his  case  they  were  never  blunted  by  sin. 
Oh,  what  a  heart  had  he  !  How  harmless  were  his  joys  !  How  pain- 
ful were  his  sympathies  !  There  was  a  great  deal  more  of  feeling  than 
of  philosophy  in  the  character  of  our  Savior  when  he  was  upon  the 
earth.  Of  course  his  intellect,  even  in  his  inferior  nature,  was  unfath- 
omable :  but  still  it  contained  in  it  more  developments  of  the  tenderest 
sensibihties,  than  of  the  stern, cold  intellectuality  of  sensibility,  of  that 
sensible  sympathy  which  usually  associates  with  the  acutest  sense  of 
self-value  and  self-love,  the  most  innocent  of  our  sins.  He  felt  for 
himself  as  well  as  for  others  ;  he  valued  himself,  he  loved  his  life.  How 
pathetically  did  he  appeal  to  his  disciples  in  terms  like  these,  "  Greater 
love  hath  no  man  than  this,that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends  !  " 
"  I  am  the  good  Shepherd  "  — hear  the  illustration  —  "  the  good  Shep- 
herd giveth  his  life  for  the  sheep." 

And  consider  that  the  Savior's  was  an  iyinocent  offering.  And  this 
must  have  rendered  his  hfe  more  valuable  to  himself,  as  well  as  his 
death — death,  with  all  its  moral  associations,  is  repugnant ;  but  the 
death  of  the  atonement,  as  an  instantaneous  recognition  of  the  author- 
ity of  God  over  a  world  of  sinners,  and  his  predetermination  to  punish 
sin,  to  his  purity  and  innocence  must  have  been  pecuHarly  revolting. 
He  was  not  willing  to  admit  for  a  moment  that  it  was  his  design  to  for- 
feit,—  he  never  forfeited  the  great  gift  of  life,  he  never  rendered  him- 
self personally  deserving  of  death ;  he  was  tenacious  of  hfe,  he  was 
more  afflicted  at  his  anticipated  removal  than  one  bowed  at  the  feet  of 
God  under  a  sense  of  forfeited  life  and  deserved  death.  We  speak  of 
Christian  fortitude  and  humility,  and  that  humiUty  constituted  by  a 
sense  of  our  demerit.  In  such  a  sense  our  Savior  had  it  not ;  in  no 
sense  had  he  deserved  the  displeasure  of  God  for  himself ;  and  I  say  in 
consequence  he  must  more  sensitively  have  recoiled  from  the  death  of 
the  atonement,  and  from  death  in  all  its  forms,  from  all  its  bitter  bodi- 
ly pains,  and  more  especially  from  the  bitter  moral  associations  con- 
nected with  it,  as  a  sacrifice  for  sins  not  his  own. 

And  what  do  we  infer  from  all  this,  but  the  costhness  and  generosity 
of  the  sacrifice;  that  he  who  knew  himself  to  be  God,  "  who,"  as  the 
apostle  significantly  tells  us,  "  th6ught  it  no  robbery  to  be  equal  with 


220  THE    ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

God"  —  that  he  who  knew  himself  to  be  God,  should  assume  mortal 
nature,  and  endowed  with  all  its  tenderest  sympathies,  and  loving  life, 
he  should  hasten  to  its  close  ;  and  that,  pure,  placid,  and  peaceful  as 
he  was,  conscious  of  his  personal  innocence,  he  should  submit  to 
receive,  not  only  wounds  and  suiferings,  but  to  be  branded  with  dis- 
honor, and  to  have  the  impress  of  divine  and  judicial  wrath  stamped 
upon  him,  that  he  might  redeem  the  lost  at  such  a  vast  expense  to  God, 
and  to  himself  such  an  mispeakable  sacrifice  ? 

0  Lamb  of  God  !  was  ever  pain, 
Was  ever  love  like  thine  'I 

IV".  Consider  the  value  attached  to  this  blood  by  the 
Father. 

1.  We  might  illustrate  this  by  many  tokens  and  testimonies  of  his 
complacency  towards  his  Son,  before  his  sufferings  and  death.  "  When 
he  bringeth  in  the  first-begotten  into  the  world,  he  saith,  And  let  the 
angels  of  God  worship  him."  At  another  time,  "  Lo,  a  voice  from 
heaven,  saying,  this  is  my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased." 
And  this  is  a  proof,  that  in  his  submission  to  work  the  business  of 
redemption,  he  undertook  a  task  which  was  dear  to  the  heart  of  God. 
When  he  undertook  4he  burthen  of  the  redemption  of  God's  favoiite 
creation,  it  rendered  him  an  object  of  peculiar  complacency,  in  the 
prosecution  of  which  he  never  lost  his  Father's  regard  :  he  abode  in  his 
Father's  love,  because  he  perfectly  did  his  commands  in  reference  to 
the  prosecution  of  the  great  enterprise  in  which  he  had  embarked. 

2.  Consider  as  another  illustration  of  the  preciousness  of  Christ's 
blood,  either  in  life  or  death,  to  the  Father  —  consider,  I  say,  the  per- 
sonal compensation  he  aivarded  to  him  for  his  sufferings.  The  ortho- 
dox faith  has  been  assailed  on  two  points  connected  with  this  subject, 
by  the  Socinians.  The  taunt  of,  I  cannot  but  say,  our  unhappy  oppo- 
nents, is  directed  first  in  this  way  :  "  That  it  represents  God  as  a  being 
who  would  not  consent  to  remit  the  punishment  of  an  offending  race, 
without  devolving  the  burthen  of  their  sufferings  upon  his  own  Son." 
We  know  easily  hoAV  to  retort  this  taunt:  it  is  one  which  argues  that 
our  system  is  unmerciful ;  that  it  is  a  system  which  dishonors  the  jus- 
tice and  mercy  of  God,  who  makes  no  other  provision  for  a  righteous 
and  honorable  remission  of  sins  ;  that  it  exhibits  the  divine  being  in  a 
very  revolting  light.  But  is  our  system  so  ?  What  is  the  truth  on 
this  point  ?  Why,  that  when  the  justice,  the  honor,  and  the  perfec- 
tions of  God  rendered  an  atonement  necessary  for  our  salvation  ;  — 
which  rendered  the  redemption  necessary  of  the  whole  world,  as  sin- 
ners against  the  infinite  Majesty  of  haaven ;  when  a  redemption  price 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.  221 

became  necessary,  God  himself  paid  it  down  in  the  person  of  his  own 
Son,  and  thus  expressed  his  love  to  his  fallen  creatures,  as  an  expres- 
sion of  his  regard  for  him,  he  comes  from  heaven,  and  dies  for  their 
guilt,  and  to  expiate  their  offences  :  he  expresses  his  willingness  that 
men  should  repent  and  live,  and  his  unwillingness  that  they  should  die 
their  deserved  death.  And  this  is  an  expression  of  his  love,  unmeas- 
urably  greater  than  if  he  could  have  pardoned  sins  without  such  a 
sacrifice. 

But  the  taunt  then  is  transferred  to  the  substitute  :  "  Oh,  then,  still 
the  Deity  must  take  a  malignant  pleasure  in  suffering,  when  he  alleges 
the  atonement  of  his  Son  to  be  the  only  alternative   to  the  misery  of 
his  creatures."     Our  gospel  meets  this  objection  too  ;  it  tells  us,  that 
though  God  in  mercy  spared  not  his  only  Son,  but  freely  delivered  him 
up  to  death  for  man,  he,  in  justice  to  that  Son,  afforded  him  supernat- 
ural assistance,  to  sustain  him  in  his  trial  and  humiliation  ;  he  made  haste 
to  raise  him  from  the  dead  when  the   atonement  was   complete,  when 
his  death  was  accomplished,  and  his  blood  was  shed  ;  he  would  not  suffer 
his  holy  One  to  see  corruption ;  he  made  good  speed   to  recover  him 
from  all  but  necessary,  absolutely  necessary  dishonor  ;  he   would  not 
suffer  him  "  to  see  corruption."     And  now  he  sits  at  his  right  hand,  in 
the  heavenly  places,  he  is  crowned  with  compensatory  glory  and  honor 
as  the  Redeemer  of  the  world,  and  as  the  Savior  of  his  people  ;  and  such 
glory  as  this  would  never  have  accrued  to  him,  as  the  maker  and  gov- 
ernor of  the  universe.     He  has  assumed  a  new  name,  the  name  of 
Jesus.     He  has  assumed  a  new  relation,  that  of  the  Savior.     He  has 
assumed  a  new  dominion,  a  mediatorial  one.    Every  thing  now  is  medi- 
atorial.    His  government  is  mediatorial.    His  providence  is  mediatorial. 
His  official  character  is  mediatorial      All  these  new  names  have  a 
distinct  relation  to  his  sufferings.     They  are  procured,  and  accorded  to 
him  on  the  ground  of  his  having  thus  nobly  accomplished  and  submitted 
to  the  death  of  the  cross  for  us.     And  now  his   crown  sparkles  with 
the  tears  of  penitents,  and  their  lustre  far  surpasses,  in  his  own  esteem, 
the  glory  of  its  other  embellishments  :   his   palace  resounds  with    the 
sighs  of  broken  hearts,  and  the  songs  of  the  rejoicing  ones  are  like 
music  to  his  ears.     Now  his  train  is  composed  of  the  redeemed  —  the 
liberated  captives  —  the  followers  of  his  cross  ;  he  rejoices  with  pecu- 
liar satisfaction  and  complacency  ;  the  name  of  Jesus  .is  music  to  his 
ear,  he  loves  to  hear  it  echoed  !  echoed  !   echoed  !     It  cannot  be  too 
often  made  the  subject  of  appeal  to  God  his  Father.     It  cannot  be  too 
often  repeated  to  himself.     He  loves  to  hear  the  sinner  address  him  as 
Jesus,  as  his  official  Lord,  upon  whom  he   devolves  his  hopes,  as  the 
responsible  instrument  of  his  salvation. 


222  THE    ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

And  uhen  he  looks  upon  earth,  he  heholds  the  fruits  of  his  redemp- 
tion, in  the  conversion  of  sinners,  in  the  comforting  of  mourners,  in 
the  recovery  of  the  workl,  in  the  propagation  of  the  gospel,  and  in  the 
edification  of  his  church.  And  when  he  transfers  his  attention  from 
earth  to  heaven,  there  he  beholds  the  multitudes  around  his  throne, 
"whose  robes  have  been  washed  and  made  white  in  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb  ;  who  through  his  merit,  and  the  efficacy  of  his  blood,  are  placed 
there,  far  beyond  the  reach  of  any  earthly  toil  or  danger;  who,  we  are 
beautifully  told,  "follow  the  Lamb  whithersoever  he  goeth."  And 
this  we  are  told  in  language  which  has  no  reference  to  their  past  char- 
acter ;  when  they  are  described  in  the  past  tense,  it  speaks  of  them  as 
those  "  who  have  not  been  defiled  ; "  and  as  those  who  "  were  redeemed 
from  among  men,"  but  when  they  are  spoken  of  in  the  present  tense, 
if  we  may  so  speak  about  heaven,  it  says,  "  these  are  they  which  follow 
the  Lamb  whithersoever  he  goeth  ; "  their  eyes  are  upon  his  throne,  he 
is  the  object  and  centre  of  attraction :  — 

Jesus,  hannonious  name ! 

It  charms  the  hosts  above  ; 
They  evennore  proclaim 
And  wonder  at  his  love. 
'Tis  all  their  happiness  to  gaze  ; 
'Tis  heaven  to  see  oru*  Jesus'  face. 

When  he  thus  sees  the  work  of  redemption  on  earth,  when  he 
beholds  the  redeemed  who  follow  him  with  ceaseless  songs  in  heaven, 
he  looks  forward  to  the  futurity,  when  all  men  shall  bless,  and  be 
blessed  of  him ;  "  he  sees  of  the  travail  of  his  soul,  and  is  satisfied." 
Then  his  Father  puts  his  seal  to  the  work  ;  he  intimates  the  unspeaka- 
ble preciousness  of  his  blood,  and  his  fixed  determination  that  his  death 
shall  be  a  full  recompense,  a  full  redress  ;  and  he  illustrates  the  same 
thing  by  the  propitiatory  efiect  his  blood  has  upon  his  own  mind.  The 
Scripture  sometimes  speaks  of  the  Father  not  merely  as  the  first  per- 
son of  the  Deity,  or  as  having  a  personal  relation  to  the  Son,  and 
Holy  Spirit,  but  as  the  fountain  and  representative  of  the  Godhead. 
Our  Lord  speaks  frequently  as  though  the  Deity  subsisted  in  his  per- 
son ;  he  speaks  of  the  Deity  as  subsisting  in  the  person  of  the  Father ; 
and  the  Scriptures  teach  us  the  effect,  the  instantaneous  effect,  of  the 
presentation  of  the  blood  of  the  great  atonement  upon  the  mind  of  the 
Father  as  upon  the  mind  of  the  Deity ;  so  that  his  justice  is  suspended 
and  quieted,  and  turned  aside,  when  he  hears  the  Son.  The  blood 
of  Christ  once  freely  shed,  now  constantly  sprinkles  the  mercy-seat ; 
the  Father  hears  him  with  rejoicing, 

The  Father  hears  him  pray, 

His  deaj-  Anointed  One  ;' 
He  cannot  tm-n  away 

The  presence  of  liis  Son. 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.  223 

And  the  Spirit  makes  a  proper  application  of  the  truth  :  — 

His  Spiiit  answers  to  the  blood, 
Ami  tells  me  I  am  bom  of  God ; 

SO  precious  is  the  blood  of  Christ  in  the  esteem  of  the  Father. 

V.  And  need  I  remind  you  of  the  immense  good  this  blood  is  the 
MEANS  OF  PROCURING  TO  MANiciND,  to  saj  nothing  of  the  lowcr  orders 
of  creation,  as  a  further  illustration  of  this  subject.  AVhen  the  burst 
of  joy  shall  rise  from  many  angels  round  the  throne,  and  the  elders 
saying,  ^'ith  a  loud  voice,  "  Worthy  the  Lamb  that  was  slain ;  "  then 
every  creature  -which  is  in  heaven,  and  on  earth,  and  under  the  earth, 
and  such  as  are  in  the  sea,  whether  at  present  higher  or  lower  in  the 
scale  of  creation,  every  creature  shall  in  some  mysterious  way  subscribe 
Amen !  to  the  beneficial  effects  of  their  redemption  by  their  common 
Savior.  But  if  we  look  to  the  effect  of  this  blood  upon  the  mind  and 
condition  of  man  generally,  what  do  Ave  owe  to  it  ?  We  owe  to  it  our 
immortal  destination;  for,  beyond  question,  had  the  law  taken  effect 
upon  the  breach  of  it,  if  its  penalty  had  been  inflicted,  our  race  would 
have  been  extinguished.  If  in  the  day  Adam  ate  the  forbidden  fruit 
he  had  died,  his  posterity  would  have  been  extinct ;  we  are,  therefore, 
indebted  to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  according  to  the  language  of  the 
New  Testament,  for  our  earthly  existence  ;  and  by  the  same  testimony 
we  are  clearly  indebted  to  him  for  our  resurrection-body  ;  we  should, 
therefore,  have  no  essential  or  perfect  constitution  without  him,  either 
in  a  present  or  a  future  state.  We  are  clearly  indebted  to  him  for 
bringing  life  and  immortality  to  light  by  the  gospel,  and  putting  us  in 
possession  of  it  by  his  blood.  We  are  indebted  to  his  blood  for  our 
salvation,  and  all  Avhich  that  involves  us  in,  as  responsible  beings.  We 
are  indebted  to  his  blood  for  our  hopes  of  eternal  life  ;  for  all  our  capac- 
ities of  mind  ;  for  the  favorable  and  auspicious  circumstances  in  which 
we  are  placed ;  for  all  the  conveniences  of  nature  ;  for  the  arrano-e- 
ments  of  providence ;  for  the  lengthening  out  our  lease  of  life,  and  for 
the  arrest  of  judgment,  which  is  made  in  our  favor  —  all  this  is  to  be 
put  to  the  account  of  Christ. 

We  are  indebted  to  him  for  all  the  chastenings  of  providence,  which 
are  parts  of  God's  merciful  system.  There  is  nothing  in  the  world 
which  ought  not  to  remind  us  of  it ;  man's  whole  providential  history 
should  remind  us  of  our  obligation  to  him  :  the  mercy  of  God  to  him 
in  his  affliction.  We  are  apt  to  forget  what  we  deserve  when  God 
prospers  us  ;  and  when  in  his  providence  he  chastens  us,  to  prav  to  him 
for  a  right  use  of  it,  and  to  be  reminded  of  the  moral  cause  of  all. — 


224  THE  ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

Why  are  these  things  so  ?  Wherefore  does  God  condemn  me  ?  Because 
I  am  a  sinner.  This  thought  does  not  often  glance  into  our  mind  in 
prosperity. 

0  unexhausted  grace  ! 

0  love  unspeakable  ! 

1  am  not  gone  to  my  own  place, 

1  am  not  yet  in  hell ! 

We  do  not  remember  that  to  deserve  mercies  we  must  thank  God  for 
crosses,  so  chastening  us  by  his  providence,  that  we  are  driven  for 
refuge  to  the  mediatorial  interposition  of  the  Savior,  and  the  influence 
of  his  precious  blood.  To  this  blood  we  owe  his  grace,  spiritualizing 
us,  and  disposing  us  to  welcome  all  he  does.  We  owe  it  to  this  that 
the  pulpit  stands  a  fountain  of  pure  and  inspired  instruction.  To  this 
we  are  indebted  for  the  gospel,  for  the  ministry,  for  all  our  Christian 
companionship  and  intercourse,  for  access  to  God  in  prayer,  and  the 
leading  and  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  —  all  this  we  owe  to  his  pre- 
cious blood. 

And  mark  its  effects  upon  the  penitent  and  enlightened  man  :  it  pro- 
cures his  pardon,  for  he  is  justified  by  his  blood  ;  he  has  peace  in  the 
blood  of  Christ,  it  purges  his  conscience  from  dead  works  to  serve  the 
living  God ;  he  rejoices  in  the  power  of  going  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  that  he  may  be  joined  to  his  spiritual  church  ;  and  that  he,  who 
was  once  far  off,  is  made  nigh  by  the  blood  of  Christ,  that  he  may  have 
access  and  boldness  to  enter  into  the  holiest  by  the  blood  of  Jesus. 

It  i-s  our  duty,  our  daily  duty,  to  look  into  that  passage,  I  mean  the 
first  chapter  of  the  first  epistle  of  John.  Judge  ye  if  the  reference 
is  not  to-day  needful,  and  if  it  is  not  needful  for  your  ultimate  consid- 
eration ;  we  have  elsewhere  described  it,  as  the  daily  experience  of 
every  faithful  believer.  And  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  us 
from  all  sin  ;  it  keeps  us  from  condemnation,  it  purifies  our  hearts,  it 
draws  us  towards  God,  and  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin.  And  there  is  a  con- 
temporaneous expression  which  should  be  equally  habitually  our  study  ; 
the  expression,  "  if  we  walk  in  the  light  we  have  fellowship  with  God ;  " 
we  are  privileged  with  entire  sanctification  ;  every  day  it  enables  us  to 
walk  in  fellowship  with  God,  through  this  precious  blood  which  cleans- 
eth from  sin.  0  perfect  influence  of  the  blood  of  the  everlasting 
covenant,  by  which  God  maketh  us  perfect  in  every  good  word  and 
work  !  0  victorious  blood !  by  which  we  are  made  finally  conquerors, 
and  more  than  conquerors !  "  They  overcame  by  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb,  and  by  the  word  of  their  testimony." 

Take  a  comparative  view,  if  you  please,  of  this  influence,  and  you 
will  find  it  transcends  every  thing.    Compare  it  with  the  earthly  objects 


DOCTRINE  OF  THE  ATONEMENT.  225 

of  men's  affections,  -with  wealth,  -with  friendship,  vrith  power,  with 
court  influence,  with  the  splendors  of  state,  with  intellect,  with  scien- 
tific eminence,  with  personal  accomplishments,  and  what  are  all  these 
to  the  blood  of  Christ  ? 

Vain, delusive  world,  adieu! 

With  all  thy  creature  good ; 
Only  Jesus  I  pursue, 

Who  bought  me  with  his  blood. 

All  thy  pleasures  I  forego  I 

I  trample  on  thy  wealth  and  pride  ! 
Only  Jesus  will  I  know, 

And  Jesus  crucified. 

Compare  it  with  religious  experience.  Some  have  substituted  alms, 
mortifications,  penances,  penitence  and  prayers  ;  and  even  works  of 
faith,  as  an  instrument,  are  too  often  substituted  by  the  weak  and 
unenlightened  mind,  for  the  meritorious  cause  of  pardon  ;  but  Avith  this 
blood  all  these  are  unnecessary,  and  without  it  they  are  unavailable  ; 
with  it  they  are  superfluous,  without  it  they  are  absolutely  worthless, 
and  of  no  account  in  the  sight  of  God. 

Compare  this  sacrifice  with  all  those  by  which  it  was  typified  under 
the  law.  There  is  a  remarkable  reference  in  the  context  to  this  sub- 
ject :  "  Forasmuch  as  ye  know  that  ye  were  not  redeemed  with 
corruptible  things,  as  silver  and  gold,  but  with  the  precious  blood  of 
Christ."  The  reference  is  possibly  to  the  price  at  which  the  sacrificial 
victims  were  purchased,  and  the  costliness  of  the  vicarious  sacrifice  of 
Christ.  "  Ye  know,"  says  the  apostle  with  reference  to  the  propitia- 
tory sacrifice,  "  that  ye  were  not  redeemed  with  corruptible  things, 
such  as  silver  and  gold  "  —  your  lamb  is  not  bought,  and  his  virtue, 
his  merit,  is  incorruptible  ;  it  always  flows  —  it  flows  to  the  uttermost 
end  of  time  ;  it  flows  for  ever  ;  it  will  sustain  the  favor  of  God  through 
the  ages  of  eternity.  It  is  incorruptible, it  does  not  need  to  be  renewed  ; 
"  for  by  one  offering  he  hath  perfected  for  ever  them  that  are  sanc- 
tified." 

Compare  —  in  order  that  the  close  of  the  climax  may  rise  to  its 
highest  point  —  compare  it  with  every  other  part  of  the  Savior's  work, 
with  hi?  personal  and  official  character,  with  his  divinity,  with  his  incar- 
nation, with  his  teaching,  his  miracles,  his  power,  his  mercy,  his  acts 
of  obedience,  his  sufferings,  his  life,  his  death  :  and  after  death,  with 
his  resurrection,  his  commission  to  his  apostles,  with  the  regal  preroga- 
tive and  power  which  enters  into  every  thing  which  belongs  to  him  as 
a  mediator.  "  All,"  as  Bishop  Hall  says.  "  have  a  reference  to  the 
atonement,  all  parts  of  the  Savior's  character  work  by  virtue  of  the 
15 


226  THE    ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

atonement,"  have  a  relation  to  it,  and  have  their  end  in  it.  ^o  that, 
after  comparing  it  to  every  thing  in  the  universe,  such  is  its  richness 
and  merit,  that  we  must  sum  all  up  in  the  conclusion,  that  it  is  the 
super-eminentlj  precious  blood  of  Christ. 

VI.  By  way  of  application,  let  us  see  w^hether  this  blood  be  not 
precious  to  every  rightly  affected  human  heart.  Mark  its  efficacy  and 
power  over  every  class  of  sinners,  who  are  resting  upon  its  sovereign 
influence  through  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  "  To  you  he  is 
precious." 

1.  Look  at  the  half-awakened  sinner,  he  that  is  convicted  of  sin  by 
the  power  of  God ;  he  anticipates  judgment,  he  anticipates  hell  beyond 
it ;  the  hghtnings  of  God's  wrath  flash  in  the  face  of  his  conscience  ; 
he  hears  the  thunders  of  the  broken  law,  he  is  disturbed,  alarmed, 
unhappy  ;  but  let  him  stop  here,  and  then  he  will  soon  find  that  all  is 
hardness  and  despair  ;  he  wants  the  thunder-shower,  the  softening  influ- 
ence —  you  have  it  here.  He  is  brought  in  contact  with  the  cross,  he 
is  pointed  to  Christ  crucified,  he  is  led  to  reflect  on  what  Christ  has 
done  and  suffered  for  him,  and  these  sufferings  carried  home  to  his  heart 
by  the  Holy  Spirit,  he  cries, 

By  thy  Spirit,  Lord,  reprove, 

All  my  inmost  sins  reveal ; 
Sins  against  thy  light  and  love, 

Let  me  see,  and  let  me  feel ; 
Sins  that  crucified  my  God, 

Spilt  again  his  precious  blood. 

And  here  comes  the  thunder-shower,  the  relieving  influence,  he  sor- 
rows for  sin,  he  hates  it  for  its  own  sake  ;  and  because  it  is  obnoxious 
to  God,  to  God  in  Christ,  to  the  divine  Sa^ior  crucified  for  that  sin, 
and  thus  he  is  led  to  a  real  and  true  repentence  towards  God. 

2.  Now  take  the  penitent  sinner  to  the  same  cross,  let  him  be 
brought  under  the  same  influence  ;  hope  springs  up  in  his  bosom  ;  he 
sees  that  God  is  merciful  as  well  as  just ;  he  rejoices  in  the  hope  of 
pardon  and  salvation ;  he  looks  and  sees  the  sunshine  stealing  through 
the  shower,  it  glistens  in  the  cloud  before  the  shower  is  over  ;  and  then 
he  looks  agaua,  he  contemplates  more  attentively,  the  troubles  of  his 
breast  are  calmed,  his  fears  are  removed,  and  he  forms  a  proper  spirit- 
ual estimate  of  the  preciousness  of  the  Savior's  blood.  IVhen  the 
sinner  can  be  brought  to  see  the  atonement  in  the  light  in  which  God 
sees  it,  he  believes  in  his  heart  unto  righteousness  ;  Christ  interposes 
between  an  offended  God  and  condemned,  self-condemned,  miserable 
man  ;  he  points  to  his  blood,  the  Father  looks  down  upon  it,  and  then 


iXJCTRINE    OF    THE    AlONEMExXT.  227 

he  is  ready  to  pardon,  he  makes  haste  to  be  gracious,  he  burns  to  spare 
the  sinner,  he  wishes  him  to  take  the  same  interest  which  he  does  in 
the  atonement  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  the  same  impression  from  it. — 
What  does  he  do  ?  he  sends  his  Spirit  into  his  heart,  and  transfers,  or 
rather  communicates  something  of  his  own  impression  of  the  atonement 
to  the  heart  of  the  sinner  ;  the  sinner  looks  up  to  Christ's  blood,  his 
face  is  towards  liis  God,  his  face  is  towards  it,  by  the  power  of  God  he 
is  induced  to  look  up  for  pardon,  and  then  he  pardons  him  freely,  he 
freely  justifies  him,  and  by  that  power  the  sinner  is  induced  to  trust  in 
him  for  the  promised  pardon :  the  moment  the  sinner  so  trusts  he 
believes  in  his  heart  unto  righteousness  ;  he  goes  home  to  his  house 
justified,  he  is  made  accepted  in  the  beloved,  and  justified  by  his 
blood. 

3.  Mark  its  effects  upon  the  Christian,  whether  newly  made  in 
Christ,  or  the  more  established  Christian.  What  is  its  influence  upon 
that  character  —  for  instance  upon  his  worship,  he  goes  to  the  altar  of 
God  to  worship  him  ;  he  enters  into  the  temple  to  offer  his  sacrifices, 
he  bends  his  way  to  the  altar  of  Atonement,  he  approaches  it  with 
reverence  and  adoration,  he  makes  haste  to  worship  God,  he  finds  the 
altar  of  incense  sprinkled  with  the  blood  of  that  atonement,  the  incense 
ascends  and  mingles  with  the  wreaths  of  smoke  from  the  altar  of  the 
great  atoning  sacrifice,  and  thus  becomes  acceptable  to  God.  What  a 
stimulus  to  his  activity,  for  the  love  of  Christ  constraineth  him !  What 
a  support  under  sufiering,  for  he  believes  there  is  no  way  for  him  in 
the  time  of  trial  and  sufiering  but  to  lean  upon  the  Lord,  to  depend 
upon  his  tenderest  sympathies,  arising  out  of  what  he  has  done  and 
suffered  for  him ;  and,  therefore,  he  takes  his  whole  burthen  to  the 
cross,  and  leans  upon  it  with  his  whole  weight ;  he  does  not  cast  his 
burthen  upon  God,  he  does  not  expect  to  do  so,  he  is  not  to  be  so 
entirely  disengaged  from  it,  "  Cast  thy  burden  upon  the  Lord  and  he 
shall  sustain  (not  it,  but)  thee."  But  he  does  not  suffer  his  beloved 
to  stoop  under  the  weight  of  it,  he  sustains  him  by  his  cross  :  —  the 
Christian  leans  his  weight  upon  Christ's  cross,  and  he  finds  that  prom- 
ise true. 

And  oh,  what  a  support  is  it  in  death  !  If  we  read  the  history  of 
the  most  evangelical  and  spiritually-minded  Christians  in  the  article  of 
death,  whose  spirits  are  just  about,  to  take  their  flight  to  their  kindred 
element,  what  references  do  we  see  them  making  to  the  atoning  sacri- 
fice of  Christ. 

Other  title  I  disclaim, 

This,  only  this,  is  all  my  plea :  k 

I  the  chief  of  sinners  am, 

But  Jesus  died  for  me. 


228  THE   ENGLISH  PTJLPIT. 

In  these  moments  of  parting  nature,  it  possesses  an  incomparable 
charm.  All  things  then  are  but  loss  to  the  excellency  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  Christ  Jesus  ;  their  desire  is  then  to  be  found  in  Christ  Jesus, 
not  having  on  their  own  righteousness,  but  that  of  him  who  died  to 
purchase  pardon  for  penitent  sinners. 

I  was  extremely  struck  with  an  incident  which,  as  it  bears  some  rela- 
tion to  this  part  of  my  subject,  you  will  excuse  my  repeating.  You 
are  aware  that  the  supplement  to  our  excellent  and  long-established 
hymn-book  was  arranged  under  the  direction  of  my  late  friend  Mr. 
Watson.  I  remember  that  upon  one  occasion,  having  the  privilege  of 
conversing  with  him,  he  distinctly  stated  that  he  suffered  pain  in  his 
mind  in  mentioning  two  or  three  hymns  out  of  the  collections  of  Dod- 
dridge and  Toplady  ;  and  there  was  one  which  he  expressed  the  strong- 
est aversion  to  introduce  into  the  supplement,  chiefly  as  a  matter  of 
taste.  The  hymn  in  question  had  some  grammatical  improprieties 
which  ought  not  to  be  admitted ;  and  besides  that,  it  held  too  familiar 
language  in  reference  to  our  Savior,  which  he  considered  ought  not  to 
be  sanctioned  in  any  of  our  standards  of  theology  or  forms  of  worship. 
But  I  was  struck  on  hearing  my  excellent  friend  in  his  last  days  in  the 
habit  of  referring  to  that  very  hymn,  more  than  any  other,  either  in 
the  original  hymn-book  or  the  supplement,  as,  through  the  blessing  of 
God,  a  source  of  consolation  to  him  —  of  dying  consolation.  We  are 
not,  indeed,  to  wonder  that  as  piety  matures  it  should  exhibit  an 
increasing  softness,  susceptibiUty,  and  tenderness :  ripe  fruit  is  tender 
and  mellow.  This  was  the  hymn  which  was  excluded  on  the  ground 
of  taste,  and  which  was  yet  found  to  be  so  precious  a  support  in  the 
time  of  trial :  — 

<  "  Thou  dear  Redeemer,  dying  Lamb, 

We  love  to  hear  of  thee  ; 
No  music's  like  thy  charming  name, 
Nor  half  so  sweet  can  be." 

It  thus  closes  :  — 

"  When  we  appear  in  yonder  cloud, 
With  all  the  favored  throng ; 
Then  will  we  sing  more  sweet,  more  loud, 
And  Christ  shall  be  our  song." 

This  blood  will  be  the  plea  in  judgment,  of  those  who  stand  in  that 
great  day  clothed  in  the  righteousness  of  Christ  —  the  comprehensive 
merit  and  all-powerful  efficacy  of  his  blood.  It  will  be  their  theme, 
their  delight,  and  their  song  of  rejoicing  throughout  all  eternity,  to 
attest  how  precious  it  was  to  their  happiness  and  their  salvation,  and 
*how  dear  to  their  hearts.  Precious  is  this  blood  !  Oh,  be  thankful  to 
God  for  his  bountiful  provision  !     Oh,  tremble  at  the  idea  of  trifling 


THE   LAST  JUDGMENT.  229 

with  it,  and  trampling  it  under  your  feet !  0  Christian,  make  use  of 
its  powerful  influence  with  God  for  yourself!  Hitherto  you  have  asked 
nothing  in  Christ's  name,  nothing  worthy  of  the  plea,  and  the  influence 
and  merit  of  his  death,  you  have  hitherto  asked  nothing  :  "  Ask,  and 
ye  shall  receive."  Ask  something,  something  proportionate  to  Christ's 
merit  and  his  death  ;  "  Ask  and  receive,  that  your  joy  may  be  full." 

Finally,  my  brethren,  as  you  have  felt  the  value  of  this  blood  in 
your  own  case,  use  all  your  influence  to  spread  the  fame  of  it  among 
your  fellow-creatures.  What  a  shame  it  is  that  the  world  needs  these 
exertions  !  What  a  shame  it  is  that  eflbrt  must  be  used  to  propagate 
a  knowledge  of  its  influence,  and  that  this  precious  blood  is  not  univer- 
sally welcomed  and  confided  in,  —  this  state  of  things  must  be  correct- 
ed and  reversed ;  —  it  can  only  be  so  by  the  combined  efforts  of  those 
who  have  experienced  the  value  of  the  atoning  efficacy  of  this  blood, 
and  God  working  with  them  as  his  instruments  in  the  great  work,  and 
performing  mighty  spiritual  wonders. 

Lamb  of  God,  who  bear'st  away 

All  the  sins  of  all  mankind, 
Bow  a  world  unto  tby  sway ; 
Let  thy  dying  love  constrain 

Those  who  disregard  thy  frown ; 
Sink  the  mountain  to  a  plain  ; 

Bring  the  pride  of  sinners  down ; 
Soften  the  obdurate  crowd ; 

Melt  the  rebels  with  thy  blood ! 


SERMON   XIX. 

THE     SCENE     OF     THE     LAST     JUDGMENT 
BY  REV.  E.  W.  HAMILTON,  D.  D.,  L.  L.  D. 


"  And  1  saw  a  great  white  throne,  and  Him  that  sat  on  it,  from  whose  face  the  earth  and 
the  heaven  fled  away  ;  and  there  was  found  no  place  for  them.  And  I  saw  the  dead,  small 
and  great,  stand  before  God  ;  and  the  books  were  opened  :  and  another  book  was  opened, 
which  is  the  book  of  life  :  and  the  dead  were  judged  out  of  those  things  which  were  writ- 
ten in  the  books,  according  to  tlieir  works.  And  the  sea  gave  up  the  dead  which  were  in 
it ;  and  death  and  hell  delivered  up  the  dead  wliich  were  in  them  ;  and  they  were  judged 
every  man  according  to  their  works." — Revelation    xx.  11  —  13. 

In  looking  around  this  congregation,  beloved  hearers,  I  feel  at  this 
moment  well-nigh  overwhelmed.  So  many  eyes  —  so  many  ears  —  all 
the  organs  and  the  representatives  of  immortal  souls  ! 


230  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

Suffer  me  to  relieve  my  emotions  by  an  allusion  to  a  well-knoTvn  fact. 
When  Massillori  pronounced  one  of  those  discourses  -which  have  placed 
him  in  the  first  class  of  orators,  he  found  himself  surrounded  by  the 
trappings  and  pageants  of  a  royal  funeral.  The  temple  was  not  only 
hung  with  sable,  but  shadowed  with  darkness,  save  the  few  twinkling 
hghts  of  the  altar ;  the  beauty  and  the  chivalry  of  the  land  were 
spread  out  before  him  ;  the  censers  threw  forth  their  fumes  of  incense, 
and  they  mounted  to  the  gilded  dome.  There  sat  majesty,  clothed  in 
sackcloth  and  sunk  ui  grief.  All  felt  in  common,  and  as  one.  It  was 
a  breathless  suspense  ;  not  a  sound  broke  upon  the  awful  stillness. — • 
The  master  of  mighty  eloquence  arose.  His  hands  were  folded  on  his 
bosom :  his  eyes  were  lifted  to  heaven  ;  utterance  seemed  denied  him  ; 
he  stood  abstracted  and  lost.  At  length  his  fixed  look  unbent ;  it  hurried 
over  the  scene,  where  every  pomp  was  mixed  and  every  trophy  strewn. 
It  found  there  no  resting-place,  amidst  all  that  idle  parade  and  all  that 
mocking  vanity.  Once  more  it  settled  ;  it  had  fastened  upon  the  hier, 
glittering  Avith  escutcheons  and  veiled  with  plumes.  A  sense  of  the 
indescribable  nothingness  of  man  "  at  his  best  estate,"  in  that  hearsed 
mortal,  overcame  him.  His  eye  once  more  closed  ;  his  action  was  sus- 
pended ;  and  in  a  scarcely  audible  whisper  he  disturbed  the  long-drawn 
pause  — "  There  is  nothing  great  hut  God.^^ 

It  would  be  in  vain  for  me  to  attempt  his  power  of  impression  ;  but 
it  may  not  be  wrong  to  covet  his  depth  of  feeling.  And  while  these 
words  are  yet  vibrating  on  your  ears,  and  are  harrowing  up  your  souls, 
I  take  the  abrupt  sentence  and  fit  it  to  the  present  theme.  TJiere  is 
nothing  solemn  but  Judgment. 

The  thunder-storm  is  solemn ;  when  the  hghtnings,  "  as  arrows, 
shoot  abroad  ;  "  when  the  peals  startle  up  the  nations  ;  when  the  dread 
artillery  rushes  along  the  sky.  But  what  is  that  to  the  far-resounding 
crash,  louder  than  the  roar  and  bellow  of  ten  thousand  thunders, 
which  shall  pierce  to  the  deepest  charnels,  and  which  all  the  dead  shall 
hear  ? 

The  sea-tempest  is  solemn :  when  those  huge  billows  lift  up  their 
crests  ;  when  mighty  armaments  are  wrecked  by  their  fury  ;  broken  as 
the  foam,  scattered  as  the  spray.  But  what  is  that  to  the  commotion 
of  the  deep,  when  "  its  proud  waves  "  shall  no  more  "  be  stayed,"  its 
ancient  barriers  no  more  be  observed,  the  great  channels  be  emptied, 
and  every  abyss  be  dry  ? 

The  earthquake  is  solemn  :  when  without  a  warning  cities  totter,  and 
kingdoms  rend,  and  islands  flee  away.  But  what  is  it  to  that  tremor  which 
shall  convulse  our  globe,  dissolving  every  law  of  attraction,  untying 


THE   LAST   JUDGMENT.  231 

every  principle  of  aggregation,  heaving  all  into  chaos  and  heaping  all 
into  ruin? 

The  volcano  is  solemn  :  when  its  cone  of  fire  shoots  to  the  heavens ; 
when  from  its  burning  entrails  the  lava  rushes,  to  overspread  distant 
plains  and  to  overtake  flying  populations.  But  what  is  that  to  the  con- 
flagration, in  which  all  the  palaces  and  temples  and  the  citadels  of  the 
earth  shall  be  consumed ;  of  which  the  universe  shall  be  but  the  sacri- 
fice and  the  fuel  ? 

Great  God!  must  our  eyes  see  —  our  ears  hear  —  these  desola- 
tions ?  Must  ive  look  forth  upon  these  devouring  flames  !  Must  we 
stand  in  judgment  with  thee  ?  Penetrate  us  now  with  thy  fear  ;  awak- 
en the  attention,  which  thy  trump  shall  not  fail  to  command  ;  surround 
our  imagination  with  the  scenery  of  that  great  and  terrible  day.  Let 
us  now  come  forth  from  the  gi'aves  of  sin,  of  unbelief,  of  woi'ldliness, 
to  meet  the  overture  of  thy  mercy,  as  we  must  perforce  start  then  from 
our  sepulchres  to  see  the  descending  Judge.  Judge  us  now,  that  thou 
mayest  not  condemn  us  then.  Let  thy  terror  persuade,  that  it  may 
not  crush  us. 

Yes,  it  is  no  illusion.  The  heavens  shall  be  as  the  shrivelled  scroll 
of  parchment ;  this  solid  earth  sliull  stagger  as  the  drunken  man,  and 
cry  as  the  travailing  woman.  The  period  is  long  since  determined, 
when  time  shall  have  completed  its  course,  when  probation  shall  have 
run  its  measure,  and  when  all  the  signs  in  the  present  system  shall  be 
fulfilled  :  when  "  the  stars  shall  fall  "  as  the  leaves  of  autumn,  when 
"  the  heavens  shall  pass  away  with  a  great  noise,  and  the  elements 
shall  melt  with  fervent  heat,"  and  "  all  these  things  shall  be  dissolved." 

It  is  the  day  of  God.  It  is  "  the  judgment  of  the  great  day." — 
"  And  I  saw,"  says  the  prophet  of  the  New  Testament,  "  a  great  white 
throne,  and  Him  that  sat  on  it,  from  whose  face  the  earth  and  the 
heaven  fled  away,  and  there  was  found  no  place  for  them.  And  I  saw 
the  dead,  small  and  great,  stand  before  God  ;  and  the  books  were  open- 
ed ;  and  another  book  was  opened,  which  is  the  book  of  life  ;  and  the 
dead  were  judged  out  of  those  things  which  were  written  in  the  books, 
according  to  their  works.  And  the  sea  gave  up  the  dead  which  were 
in  it ;  and  death  and  hell  delivered  up  the  dead  which  were  in  them  ; 
and  they  were  judged  e^ery  man  according  to  their  works." 

I.  Let  us   consider  the   scenery   which  shall  attend  this 

SUELIME  event. 

Let  us  consider  the  scenery  which  shall  attend  this  august 
assize :  the  multitude  that  shall  be  summoned  to  it :  the  process  which 
must  adjudicate  it. 


232  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

The  "  throne  "  is  the  emblem  of  royal  dignity.  "  Only,"  said 
Pharaoh  to  Joseph,  "  on  the  throne  will  I  be  greater  than  thou."  It 
is  the  symbol  of  Divine  supremacy.  "  The  Lord  hath  established  his 
throne  in  the  heavens,  and  his  kingdom  ruleth  over  all." 

"  His  throne  is  as  a  fiery  flame, 
Rolling  on  wheels  of  burning  fire." 

It  is  a  "  throne  of  glory,"  which  he  will  "  not  disgrace."  It  is  a 
"  throne  of  holiness,"  which  he  will  remember.  It  is  a  throne  of  mer- 
cy, to  which  we  have  access.  It  is  a  throne  which  "  is  for  ever  and 
ever."  It  is  a  throne  which  is  "  high  "  and  which  is  "  lifted  up." 
Sometimes  he  holdeth  back  the  face  of  this  throne.  Sometimes  "  clouds 
and  darkness  are  round  about  him ;  "  "  righteousness  and  judgment," 
however,  are  alike  its  "  habitation  "  and  its  base. 

But  this  "  throne  "  is  new  to  heaven.  It  is  specially  prepared  ;  and 
he  sitteth  upon  it,  who  judgeth  right. 

It  is  "a  great  white  throne."  Refulgent  in  its  purity  and  right- 
eousness ;  formed  of  the  fleecy  vapors,  burnished  with  the  radiance 
of  sun-beams,  woven  from  the  garniture  of  the  sky.  Sunrise  and  sun- 
set never  imprinted  that  stately  purple,  that  glowing  vermilion,  that 
molten  gold.  It  is  vast,  shadowy,  undefined.  No  rainbow  of  the  cov- 
enant girdles  it ;  no  suppliants  or  penitents  sue  before  it ;  no  pardons 
are  issued  from  it.     It  is  a  tribunal  throne. 

It  is  occupied.  There  is  One  that  "sitteth  upon  it."  Sometimes 
it  is  distinctively  the  throne  of  the  Father.  Here  is  no  room  for  dis- 
crimination —  there  is  no  manner  of  similitude.  For  need  we  be  at 
loss?  "  We  must  all  appear  before  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ ;^^ 
"  When  the  Son  of  Man  shall  come  in  his  glory,  and  all  the  holy 
angels  with  him,  then  shall  he  sit  upon  the  throne  of  his  glory."  He 
is  now  enshrined  with  all  the  splendor,  as  he  ever  possessed  all  the 
fulness  of  the  Godhead.  Sometimes  he  is  "  seated  with  his  Father  on 
his  throne  ;  "  sometimes  we  look  forth  on  "  the  throne  of  God  and  of 
the  Lamb."  He  now  "  thinketh  it  no  robbery  to  be  equal  with  God," 
and  as  God  he  is  "  Judge  himself."  And  yet  we  are  to  be  called  the 
idolaters  of  the  nineteenth  century,  because  we  "  honor  the  Son  even 
as  we  honor  the  Father."  Blessed  Jesus  !  if  we  be  idolaters,  who  — 
what  —  are  the  multitudes  bending  around  thy  throne,  casting  their 
diadems  at  thy  feet,  and  crowning  thee  Lord  of  all  ? 

"  From  the  face  "  of  him  who  sitteth  upon  the  throne,  "  the  earth 
and  the  heaven  flee  away,"  He  "  gave  his  cheeks  to  them  who 
plucked  oif  the  hair  ;  "  they  "  struck  him  with  the  palm  of  their  hand," 
they  "  smote  him  with  a  reed,"  they  "  blindfolded  him  ; "  he  "  hid  not 


THE   LAST  JUDGMENT.  233 

his  face  from  reproach  and  spitting."  Those  brows  -^vere  lacerated 
with  thorns ;  those  eyes  ovei-flowed  with  tears ;  blood  trickled  doAvn 
those  channels  which  violence  had  furrowed  and  grief  had  worn.  Into 
what  expressions  must  that  countenance  have  now  kindled  !  with  what 
terrors  must  it  now  be  clothed  !  Things  inanimate,  insensible,  smitten 
with  a  strange  panic  and  with  a  sudden  dismay,  start  back  ;  and  those 
bright  heavens  and  this  fair  earth  shrink  into  primeval  disorder  and 
anarchy  and  night.  But  not  so  can  the  sinner  "  flee  away ;  "  rocks  — 
mountains  cannot  cover  him ;  there  is  no  hiding-place  for  "  the  workers 
of  iniquity." 

Heaven  and  earth  having  fled  away,  "  no  more  place  is  found  for 
them."  It  may  denote  the  dissolution  of  the  whole  created  economy  ; 
it  may  simply  refer  to  the  dissolution  of  our  planetary  system,  with  its 
canopied  atmosphere  and  with  all  that  belongs  to  it.  It  makes  little 
difference,  whether  it  be  the  greater  catastrophe  or  the  inferior  ;  the  ' 
larger  could  not  strike  a  deeper  terror  —  the  smaller  could  not  induce 
a  less.  It  is  all  to  us,  though  the  universe  is  rolling  in  its  path  ;  our 
heaven  and  our  sky  "  find  no  more  place."  What  matters  to  the  ani- 
malcule,  that  noble  streams  are  flowing,  when  its  own  drop  is  exhaled  ? 
What  matters  to  the  insect,  that  majestic  forests  flourish,  when  its  own 
leaf  has  decayed  ?  What  matters  to  the  emmet,  that  chains  of  mag- 
nificent mountain  heights  are  mingling  with  the  heavens,  when  its  own 
hillock  is  overturned  ? 

And  why  do  heaven  and  earth  pass  away  ?  and  why  is  no  more  place 
found  for  them  ?  They  have  realized  their  end.  They  were  but  as 
the  platform  and  the  scaffolding  ;  the  erection  is  complete.  "  The  mys- 
tery of  God"  is  "  finished."  There  is  the  consummation  ;  and  time, 
therefore,  "  need  be  no  longer." 

Another  remark  is  due  to  the  personage  who  sends  forth  an  aspect 
BO  strange,  so  glorious,  that  even  heaven  and  earth  cannot  endure  the 
sight :  it  is  the  crucified  One.  It  is  he  whose  doctrine  has  been  so  long 
a  stumbling-block  ;  it  is  he,  who  was  put  to  death  in  weakness  and  in 
shame.  Complex  was  his  person  ;  mysterious  was  his  investure.  Eut 
why  is  he  the  Judge  ?  "  All  judgment  is  committed  unto  him,"  — 
"  because  lie  is  the  Son  of  man."  "  God  hath  appointed  to  judge  the 
world  in  righteousness  by  that  man,  whom  he  hath  ordained  :  "  of  whom 
he  hath  given  this  notification,  "  that  he  hath  raised  him  from  the  dead." 
The  clouds,  then,  now  disperse  ;  that  which  was  hidden  is  proclaimed  ; 
that  which  was  perverted  is  disabused.  Jesus  is  vindicated  ;  every 
reproach  is  rolled  away.  All  will  acknowledge  that  he  has  made  good 
each  challenged  right,  that  he  has  made  clear  each  suspected  trans- 
action, that  he  has  made  honorable  each  aspersed  attribute  :    while  the 


234  THE   ENGLISH  TULPIT. 

cross  stands  up  as  the  very  index  and  basis  and  trophy  of  all,  and  he 
who  now  "  comes  the  second  time  "  throws  the  renown  and  the  tri- 
umph of  liis  second  coming  over  all  that  was  misunderstood  and  mis- 
construed in  the  jBrst. 

Another  remark  is  also  due  to  the  whole  of  this  great  and  singular 
process  :  it  is  incapable  of  description  and  embellishment.  We  take 
the  scenery  as  it  is  delineated  ;  and  with  that  we  must  satisfy  ourselves. 
It  is  unsusceptible  of  exaggeration.  If  any  of  us  could  overleap  the 
boundaries  of  time,  and  could  see  the  winding  up  of  the  great  drama 
of  human  events  and  moral  interests,  would  any  of  us  report  that  the 
judgment  was  too  greatly  described  ?  that  the  clangor  of  the  trumpet 
was  not  so  piercing,  that  the  conflagration  of  the  elements  was  not  so 
vehement,  that  the  apparition  of  the  rising  dead  was  not  so  appalling 
and  so  strange  ?  Should  any  of  us  §ay  that  it  was  overdrawn,  and 
that  it  nad  been  extravagantly  represented  ?  Faint  is  every  metaphor, 
feeble  is  every  description,  unworthy  is  every  imagining,  when  com- 
pared —  rather  when  contrasted  —  with  that  which  the  reality  shall 
prove. 

There  is  "a  throne,"  "  a  great  white  throne  ;  "  it  is  occupied  by  him 
whom  the  people  despised  and  the  nations  abhorred  ;  from  his  face, 
suddenly  transformed  and  transfigured, "  heaven  and  earth  flee  away ; " 
they  are  superseded  in  every  design  and  use  ;  but  Jesus  is  vindicated, 
beholding  the  honors  of  his  tribunal ;  and  the  transaction  itself  it  is 
impossible  to  overstate  or  extravagantly  to  describe. 

II.  We  ^YlLL  TURN  TO  THE  MULTITUDE  THAT  SHALL  BE  SUM- 
MONED  TO   IT. 

When  we  have  entered  a  court  of  justice,  there  has  been  one  point 
of  concentrated  interest  and  attention.  However  splendid  the  forms 
of  its  administration,  however  solemn  the  functionaries  of  its  exercise, 
whatever  may  have  been  the  significance  of  its  types,  whatever  may 
have  been  the.  dreadness  of  its  issues,  until  law  seemed  built  up  into  a 
throned  state,  and  to  have  been  covered  with  a  spotless  robe,  all  —  all 
were  forgotten  by  us  while  intent  upon  the  prisoner  at  the  bar.  There 
he  stood ;  and  what  a  spectacle  !  The  excess  of  feeling  had  confound- 
ed every  feature,  until  it  had  lost  its  power,  and  was  incapable  of  its 
expression  ;  and  yet  how  keenly  alive  was  he  to  every  glance  that  was 
stolen,  to  every  word  that  was  breathed,  bearing  upon  his  case  !  Then 
how  his  eye  riveted  ;  how  attentive  was  his  ear  !  Every  function  and 
organ  of  sense  seemed  to  vibrate. 

There  we  saw  him  —  that  poor  wretch :  his  countenance  of  haggard 


THE  LAST  JUDGMENT.  235 

vacancy,  his  spirit  fallen  into  dark  and  torpid  despair.  He  awaited 
the  verdict  of  his  suilt  and  the  sentence  of  his  condemnation. 

We  were  spectators  then :  Ave  felt  but  from  the  force  of  sympathy. 
We  are  now  arraigned.  We  ourselves  now  are  cited.  We  ourselves 
must  confront  this  inquest ;  we  ourselves  must  stand  before  this  judg 
ment-seat.  All  are  comprehended ;  all  are  summoned.  "  Come  to 
judgment,"  "  small  and  great,"  "  the  quick  and  the  dead." 

Oh  !  this  innumerable,  this  untold  crowd.  It  were  to  insult  its  vast 
itude,  to  compare  it  to  any  of  the  throngs, of  earth :  the  millions  which 
Thebes  attracted  —  which  Godfrey  marshalled  —  over  which  Xerxes 
wept :  when  whole  peoples  have  been  stirred,  when  mighty  nations 
have  risen  up,  when  they  have  said  "  A  confederacy,"  when  the  appeal 
has  been  made  to  a  contemporary  race  and  to  a  listening  world. 

Who  knows  the  number  of  that  generation  of  his  species,  which  now 
fills  this  earth  ?  Say  that  it  is  500,000,000,  low  as  is  this  computa- 
tion. Begin  not  to  reckon  it  for  a  thousand  years.  Then,  from  that 
epoch,  you  must  multiply  it  at  least  a  hundred  and  fifty  times.  Arith- 
metic has  no  fictitious  figure,  by  which  to  include  it ;  or  if  it  might 
find  the  number  or  the  sound,  there  the  index  might  point,  or  there  the 
sound  might  be  uttered,  but  the  mind  would  not  be  travelling  with  it 
— ■  would  not  be  informed  by  it.  Yet  some  impression  may  be  made 
upon  us,  when  we  think  of  those  that  shall  "  stand  in  the  judgment," 
by  ascertaining  the  sources  whence  they  are  derived.    , 

"•  The  sea  gives  up  its  dead."  What  navies  have  been  shattered, 
and  have  been  swallowed  up  by  its  rage  !  Pharaoh  and  his  host :  the 
whole  world  perished  in  its  overflow.  It  is  insatiable.  It  has  encroach- 
ed upon  the  kingdoms  and  the  dwelling-places  of  men.  It  is  the  very 
emblem  of  all  that  is  insatiable  :  human  cupidity,  aggrandizement, 
ambition.  It  conceals  that  which  it  has  devoured  ;  but  he  wlio  said  to 
the  waves  of  Gennesaret,  "  Peace,  be  still,"  shall  control  the  multitu- 
dinous oceans  of  our  earth,  and  then  every  cavern  shall  be  searched, 
and  every  depth  shall  be  sounded.  It  shall  be  exacted  of  its  prey. — 
Each  secret  now  shall  then  be  wrung  from  it,  and  all  its  captives  be 
restored.     "  The  sea  gave  up  its  dead." 

"  Death  gave  up  the  dead  which  were  in  it."  The  power  of  the 
gi-ave,  the  personification  of  death.  The  deep  places  of  the  earth ; 
for  the  dry  land  is  but  the  burying-place  of  man.  Let  us  think,  how- 
ever painted  this  scene  may  be,  it  is  only  a  painted  sepulchre ;  we  are 
only  treading  on  the  dust  of  our  predecessors,  as  posterity  will  soon 
tread  on  ours.  But  he  who  burst  the  barriers  of  the  tomb,  and  made 
death  bow  before  him  —  he  shall  send  forth  his  mandate,  publish  his 
behest ;  and  then  the  vaults,  and  the  catacombs,  and  the  mummy  pits, 


236  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

and  the  bone  houses,  shall  disgorge  the  relics ;  and  death  shall  stand 
extorted  as  to  all  it  knows,  stripped  of  all  it  boasts,  and  the  whole  of 
this  earth  shall  seem  to  stir  with  motion,  and  once  more  to  heave  with 
life.  The  dead  shall  hve.  Death  is  no  longer  the  keeper  of  the  pris- 
on-house, but  delivers  up  the  dead. 

It  was  much  for  the  sea  to  obey  him  who  sitteth  on  the  throne  ;  it 
was  more,  for  death  —  the  grave  —  the  sepulchre  —  to  yield  its  vic- 
tims ;  but  "  hell  "  —  the  place  of  departed  spirits,  where  the  disembod- 
ied soul  of  man  is  to  be  found,  whether  in  happiness  or  in  woe  —  Hades 
has  listened  to  a  voice,  till  then  unknown  to  it.  The  gates  of  "  the 
shadow  of  death  "  unbar,  and  its  portals  fly  open.  And  now,  there 
come  —  there  come  —  there  come  —  clouds  of  spirits  rolling  upon 
clouds,  in  swift  succession,  with  impetuous  rush  ;  sumless,  but  all  indi- 
vidualized ;  the  consciousness  of  each  distinct,  the  character  of  each 
defined,  and  the  sentence  of  each  anticipated.  And  Hades  sends 
back  spirits  to  those  bodies,  which  the  sea  and  the  grave  may  no  more 
retain. 

"  The  small  and  the  great  stand  before  God."  All  who  have  been 
among  the  mighty,  and  would  not  "  let  go  their  prisoners,"  and  all  of 
minor  name.  Attila,  Gonsalva,  Auringzeb,  with  their  vassals:  Cyrus, 
Alexander,  Caesar,  with  their  battalions:  Plato,  Socrates,  Aristotle, 
with  their  disciples :  all  who  ever  achieved  a  name,  and  all  who  ever 
perished  without  one.  None  so  great  that  they  can  intimidate  ;  none 
so  httle  that  they  can  be  overlooked.  "  The  small  and  the  great  stand 
before  God." 

And  looking  at  that  mighty  throne,  there  is  a  distinctive  circum- 
stance which  must  not  be  overlooked  :  "  Every  man  was  judged." — 
It  seems  so  vast  an  occasion,  it  seems  so  massive  an  aggregate  ;  can 
"  every  man"  there  find  a  place  ?  must  "  every  man  "  there  pass  an 
ordeal  ?  Every  man  shall  there  stand  apart,  bearing  his  own  burden, 
occupying  his  own  lot.  Every  man  shall  there  give  the  account  for 
himself,  and  not  for  another.  Every  man  shall  there  feel  as  though 
for  him  alone  that  trumpet  blast  was  rung  and  that  blazing  conflagra- 
tion was  kindled,  and  all  this  sublime  tragedy  was  acted.  Every  man 
shall  feel  that  he  is  noticed,  that  he  is  espied,  and  must  be  judged  out 
of  these  books. 

There  is  sometimes  a  deception  we  would  practise  upon  ourselves : 
we  think  that  we  may  be  lost  as  in  that  multitude,  overlooked  as  in 
that  crowd.  That  objection  is  refuted;  all  difficulty  is  defied.  God 
can  say,  "  All  souls  are  mine;  "  and  all  souls,  on  that  day,  shall  pass 
In  review  before  him.  Each  of  your  "  idle  words  ;  "  each  of  your 
"vain  thoughts  ;  "  each  of  your  impure  desires:  every  bias  of  your 


TUE   LAST   JUDGMENT.  23T 

spirit,  every  movement  of  your  heart.  ^\'Tiat  a  resurrection  is  that, 
my  brethren !  Do  I  speak  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body  !  I  speak 
of  a  resurrection  more  hideous.  We  must  all  "  receive  the  things 
done  in  the  body,  whether  they  be  good  or  -whether  they  be  evil,"  All 
will  germinate  afresh ;  all  will  develope  anew.  There  will  then  be 
understood  the  full  doctrine  of  consequences,  and  what  is  the  entail  in 
eternity  of  all  we  speak,  and  all  we  think,  and  all  we  desire,  and  all 
we  transact  in  time.  All  is  given  back  to  us.  Not  only  the  resurrec- 
tion of  our  bodies  ;  there  is  the  resuscitation  of  our  deeds. 

in.  Lastly,  let  us  consider  the  process  that  must  determine 
OR  adjudicate  it. 

What  a  suspense  have  we  felt  when  we  looked  at  the  flying  scroll ; 
when  we  looked  upon  the  seven-sealed  Book  !  But  what  are  they  to 
these  registers,  on  which  all  our  fates  depend  ? 

There  is  a  "  book  of  God's  remembrance."  It  is  accommodated 
language,  that  we  may  better  understand  that  nothing  is  forgotten  by 
liim.  "  All  our  members  "  are  in  that  book  ;  and  in  that  book  "  are 
not  even  our  tears  ?  "  God  "  looks  upon  the  heart ;  "  "  God  requir- 
eth  that  which  is  past."  These  are  solemn  words  :  "  If  our  heart  con- 
demn us,  God  is  greater  than  our  heart,  and  knoweth  all  things." — 
"  Thou  hast  set  mine  iniquities  before  thee,  my  secret  sins  in  the  light 
of  thy  countenance."     These  are  the  books. 

But  that  we  may  more  distinctly  analyze  the  figure,  let  us  consider 
that  these  books  may  describe  to  us  the  requirements  of  God's  law. — 
When  Hilkiah  found  the  law,  and  read  it  to  the  people,  they  rent  their 
clothes,  awe-struck  that  they  had  committed  so  many  offences  against 
a  long-forgotten  law.  When  brought  home  by  the  Spirit,  that  re- 
bukes "  of  sin,  of  righteousness  and  of  judgment,"  to  the  conscience  of 
Saul  of  Tarsus,  a  zealot  and  a  persecutor,  "  sin  revived  "  and  as  to 
all  hope  and  as  to  all  expectation  instantly  "  he  died."  Men  make 
very  light  of  God's  law,  frame  their  excuses,  offer  their  exceptions  ; 
they  have  little  notion,  that  this  law  is  "  holy  and  just  and  good,"  that 
it  is  necessary,  that  it  is  inevitable,  that  it  results  from  infinite  perfec- 
tion, that  it  is  the  very  goodness  as  well  as  the  rectitude  of  the  Deity 
that  compels  it.  They  have  little  notion  that  it  is  spiritual  in  its  lat- 
itude and  comprehensiveness.  If  they  do  not  outAvardly  infringe  it, 
they  hold  themselves  freed  from  every  cliarge,  though  they  lust  in 
their  heart  —  though  they  covet  in  their  heart  —  though  in  their  heart 
they  comprise  every  essence  and  every  root  of  sin.  But  then  that  book, 
which  is  closed  to  so  many,  shall  "  be  opened :"  shall  be  opened  in  all 
its  requirements,  all  its  penalties,  all  its  sanctions.     You  will  not  then 


'238  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

think  that  its  bands  are  small ;  you  will  not  then  think  that  its  terrors 
are  slight.  If  the  law,  by  one  drop  of  its  present  fury,  one  flash  of 
its  present  power,  causes  the  stoutest  heart  and  the  most  rebel  con- 
science to  quail,  how  will  the  stoutest  heart  be  as  tow  in  the  fire,  and 
the  most  rebel  conscience  be  as  wax  before  the  flame,  when  this  book 
shall  be  opened  ?  —  shall  be  opened  in  all  its  contents,  shall  be  opened 
in  all  its  precepts,  shall  be  opened  in  all  its  awards. 

Bat  are  there  no  witnesses  ?  Let  memory  speak  ;  let  conscience 
appear. 

Let  memory  speak.  Now,  very  frequently,  we  know  its  weakness 
by  the  rapidity  of  its  transitions,  and  by  the  crowd  of  its  images. 
Very  much  that  we  have  known  is  obliterated  ;  very  much  of  former 
times  and  former  seasons  we  cannot  recall.  Yet  have  you  not  felt  oc- 
casionally that  you  could  live  over  again  ?  There  is  a  suggestive 
power,  there  is  an  associating  principle  ;  and  one  thing  seemed  to 
revive  another,  and  though  you  had  not  thought  upon  it  and  not 
dwelt  among  it  for  years  that  had  transpired,  you  say  it  all  at  once, 
you  felt  it  all  again.  And  tlien^  my  brethren,  memory  will  indeed 
be  a  faithful  chronicle.  Memory  will  be  a  living  present.'  What 
will  be  the  burst  of  all  its  lights,  what  will  be  the  irruption  of  all  its 
facts,  what  will  be  the  harvest  of  all  its  long-buried  seeds  !  Nothing 
effaced  ;  nothing  weakened  as  to  impression  ;  nothing  confounded,  lost 
in  the  mass;  but  every  line  distinctly  drawn,  the  "jot  and  tittle  "  all 
fulfilled. 

Let  conscience  speak.  Life,  with  many,  is  but  one  prevarication 
with  this,  and  one  endeavor  to  escape  from  it.  And  yet  they  cannot 
always  prevail.  Conscience  makes  itself  to  be  heard.  There  are 
those,  who  in  spite  of  themselves  are  at  this  moment  "  full  of  the  fury 
of  the  Lord."  Their  souls  "  meditate  terror  :  "  they  "  roar  for  the 
disquietness  of  their  souls."  "  The  spirit  of  man  may  sustain  his  in- 
firmity ;  but  a  wounded  spirit  who  can  bear  ?"  When  all  the  arrows 
are  barbed  deep  in  that  conscience,  when  all  "  the  fury  of  the  Lord  " 
is  poured  out  on  that  conscience,  when  the  grievous  whirlwind  of  wrath 
is  pressing  upon  that  conscience,  oh  !  it  will  distort  no  tale,  it  will  cor- 
rupt no  testimony.  While  memory  tells  a  fact,  conscience  will  only 
speak  a  truth. 

Brethren,  such  a  law  is  to  be  opened  ;  and  memory  will  be  an  un- 
impeachable witness  then,  and  conscience  will  be  an  unimpeachable  wit- 
ness then.  How  will  you  meet  their  report  ?  How  will  you  counter- 
work their  evidence  ? 

But  these  "books" — (they  are  many,  they  are  not  a  single  volume) 
—  may  refer  to  the  discoveries  of  the  gospel.     And  these  might  in- 


THE   LAST  JUDGMENT.  239 

deed  cheer,  and  these  ought  indeed  to  fortify,  if  you  have  "  won  Christ 
and  are  found  in  him."  But  if  you  are  unbelievers  still,  if  you  are 
"  enemies  in  your  minds  by  wicked  works,"  if  you  are  not  reconciled 
unto  God,  this  book  is  more  portentous  in  its  aspect  against  you,  even 
than  the  volume  of  the  law.  You  will  be  judged  "  according  to  this 
gospel."  Christ  himself  exclaimed  —  "  I  judge  him  not ;  the  word 
that  I  have  spoken,  the  same  shall  judge  him  in  the  last  day."  All 
the  besccchings  of  mercy,  all  the  remonstrances  of  authority,  all  the 
pleadings  of  tenderness  :  —  this  book  shall  be  opened  only  the  more 
terribly  to  convict  and  to  condemn.  Mercy  will  in  that  day  be  more 
terrible  than  justice.  The  cross  will  bo  a  sight  that  a  sinner  will  be 
glad  to  escape,  though  by  escaping  it  he  sink  deeper  into  the  devour- 
ing flames.  Calvary  will  be  a  spectacle  that  he  would  gladly  avoid, 
for  it  is  more  horror-smiting  to  him  than  the  burning  heaven  and  the 
dissolving  world. 

Brethren,  the  law  brings  its  condemnation :  it  is  of  its  nature  to 
condemn  the  sinner  ;  but  the  gospel  brings  its  pardon,  its  reconciliation, 
its  peace.  Oppose  not  —  presume  not  on  it.  Trifle  not  with  it,  lest 
you  die  in  your  sins. 

And  there  is  "  another  book."  It  is  like  the  bow  in  the  cloud  ;  it 
is  like  the  halcyon  on  the  storm.  It  is  "  the  book  of  life."  Then,  if 
we  be  enrolled  in  it,  it  is  an  act  of  grace.  If  we  be  em-olled  in  it,  we 
now  present  a  correspondence  of  character ;  we  have  life  in  us,  it 
dwclleth  in  us  ;  for  the  apostle  could  say  of  his  companions  —  "  Their 
names  are  in  the  book  of  life."  And  if  we  be  enrolled  in  it,  there  is 
here  certainty  and  guarantee  ;  for  it  is  "  in  hope  of  eternal  life,  which 
God  that  cannot  lie  promised  before  the  world  began."  And  "  the 
Lamb's  book  of  life  ;  "  our  names  written  in  his  precious  blood  ! 

They  shall  be  judged  "according  to  their  works."  Not  as  the 
foundations  of  their  faith,  but  as  its  proofs ;  not  as  any  thing  beyond 
the  symptom,  the  test,  and  the  trial.  But  "  show  me,"  says  Christian- 
ity now —  "  show  me  thy  faith  by  thy  works."  Christianity,  through 
the  lips  of  its  "  Author  and  Finisher,"  will  say  the  same  in  judgment 
to  every  formalist  and  every  professor :  "  Show  me  thy  faith  by  thy 
works."  We  shall,  therefore,  be  judged  every  one  according  to  our 
works  —  the  form  our  character  has  assumed,  the  caste  our  life  has 
taken,  "  what  manner  of  spirit  we  have  been  of,"  what  has  been  the 
whole  state,  spirit,  practice  of  our  conduct. 

"  I  saw,"  said  the  prophet.  He  never  forgot  it.  Had  we  caught 
a  ghmpse,  surely  we  could  not  forget  it  too.  But  men  say,  it  is  so 
distant.  Distant !  "  It  is  appointed  unto  you  once  to  die  ;  "  when 
will  that  appointment  come  ?  "  This  night  your  soul "  may  be  "  required 


240  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

of  you."  "  And  after  death,  the  judgment."  Immediately:  not  as 
to  its  public  ratification,  but  as  to  its  immediate  impression  and  abso- 
lute effect.     Judgment  distant !  an  hour  may  place  you  there. 

You  say,  it  is  so  vast ;  so  many  are  included  —  the  swarming  multi- 
tudes of  angels.  But  your  sin  is  distinct ;  your  spirit  stands  out  from 
every  other  spirit  that  the  Divine  inspiration  ever  breathed.  And  that 
self,  which  you  understand,  however  sophists  may  attempt  to  puzzle  it 
—  that  self  of  yours  inheres  in  you,  and  lives  in  you.  And  it  shall  be 
the  same  ;  so  that  if  you  should  awaken  up  in  your  thought  after  thou- 
sands and  thousands  of  years,  long  after  eternity  has  unfolded  itself, 
you  will  be  compelled  to  say  —  I  am  the  very  same  I  was  ;  this 
is  the  same  instrument  of  thinking  that  I  possessed  before  ;  this  is  the 
same  fa.culty  of  feeling  that  I  possessed  before  ;  I  remember  that  world 
in  which  I  first  received  my  life  ;  I  remember  my  passage  through  that 
world ;  I  am  not  a  transformed  being  ;  there  is  nothing  forgotten,  noth- 
ing evaded,  nothing  shuffled ;  I  am  tlie  same.  "What  a  thought  will 
that  be  in  eternity,  to  each  one  who  dies  in  unbelief,  and  perishes  in 
rejection  of  the  Savior !  "  I  am  that  unbeliever,  and  I  am  bearing  the 
eternal  consequences  of  that  my  vile,  infatuated  unbelief." 

Bu^t  you  think  it  inconceivable.  "  Is  it  not  painted  too  strongly  ? 
are  not  the  colors  overchafged  ?  "  The  sun  rose  upon  Sodom ;  but  the 
horrible  tempest  blasted  it  ere  that  noon.  There  were  those,  doubtless, 
in  the  days  of  righteous  Noah,  who,  as  he  adjusted  plank  after  plank 
for  a  hundred  and  twenty  years,  taunted  and  scoffed  at  him  !  but  the 
world  of  the  ungodly,  notwithstanding,  was  destroyed.  Put  not  your 
power  to  conceive  against  the  "  sayings "  which  are  "  faithful  and 
true."  Say  not,  "  Where  is  the  promise  of  his  coming  ?  "  "  He  is 
not  slack  concerning  his  promise,  as  some  men  count  slackness  " —  as 
you  are  counting  it  likewise. 

And  now,  go  to  that  Savior,  who  shall  then  be  the  Arbiter  and 
Judge  ;  and  bear  with  you  all  that  you  can  bear  —  your  poor,  your 
guilty,  your  miserable  self.  Urge  —  plead  the  cause  of  your  immor- 
tal soul.  Say  to  him  —  "  It  is  unworthy  of  thy  notice,  it  is  encrusted 
with  a  leprosy  of  cririae,  but  it  is  my  all ;  Jesus,  Son  of  David,  have 
mercy  on  me."  Ah  !  thouneedest  not  tell  him  what  is  thine  all ;  thou 
needest  not  tell  him  how  precious  and  how  invaluable  it  is  to  thee  as 
thine  all.  Has  he  not  died  the  death  ?  Knowcth  he  not,  that  "  the 
redemption  of  the  soul  is  precious  ?  "  Thou  hast  found  thy  way,  then, 
to  him  who  "  receiveth  sinners  ;  "  who  will  in  no  wise  "  cast  out." — 
Thine  appeal  is  to  a  heart  of  infinite  compassion,  and  thou  must  prevail. 

But  what  if  there  be  those  who  dcterminately  resist  the  overture  of 
mercy,  and  set  themselves  against  Jesus  as  a  Savior,  and  his  Spirit  as 


THE   LAST  JUDGMENT.  241 

a  sanctifier  ?  My  beloved  hearers,  for  a  moment  pause  ;  for  a  moment 
bear  with  me.  Did  you  ever  think  upon  these  words  —  "  the  wrath 
of  the  Lamb  ?  "  the  wrath,  not  of  "  the  Lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah," 
but  "  of  the  Lamb."  Not  the  wrath  of  him  who  goeth  forth  in  his 
indignation  ;  but  "  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb  "  —  the  Lamb  meek  and 
gentle  —  the  Lamb  who  was  "led  to  the  slaughter"  —  "the  Lamb 
that  was  slain."  "  The  wrath  of  the  Lamb  !  "  What !  that  emblem 
of  compassion,  that  incarnation  of  pity  —  can  there  be  wrath  m  him  ? 
Wrath  in  that  eye  which  wept  over  the  perishing  sinner  ?  wrath  on 
those  lips  that  only  spake  of  kindness  and  of  love  ?  What  meaneth 
this  combination  ?  "  The  wrath  of  the  Lamb  !  "  Exhausted  patience 
then  ;  inflamed  mercy  then  ;  incensed  love  then.  No  more  compassion 
in  infinite  compassion ;  no  more  love  in  inexhaustible  love.  The  cross 
no  more  propitiates ;  the  blood  of  expiation  no  more  speaks  ;  "  the  door 
is  shut ;  "  the  very  office  of  Mediator  is  abdicated  ;  and  now  there  is 
left  but  "  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb  !  " 

Go  to  him,  flee  to  him,  ere  that  wrath  shall  be"  kindled  but  a  Uttle." 
One  flake  of  it  would  consume  you  ;  one  manifestation  of  it  would 
destroy  you.  It  will  be  too  late  when  all  this  is  realized  —  "  the 
wrath  of  the  Lamb  "  —  to  say,  "  Rocks  !  fall  on  us  ;  hills  !  cover  us." 
"  The  wrath  of  the  Lamb  "  pierces  all.  And  though,  my  brethren, 
you  might  conceive  of  the  sternness  of  the  Judge,  though  you  might 
bear  up  under  the  conception  of  the  severity  and  the  vengeance  of  the 
Almighty,  what  a  hell  is  reserved  for  you  —  a  hell  that  shuts  you  up 
for  ever,  under  "  the  wrath  of  the  Lamb  !  " 


SERMON  XX. 

THE     DOUBLE     TRANSFER 
BY  REV.  J.  BENNETT. 


Who  his  own  self  bare  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree,  that  we,  being  dead  to  sin, 
should  live  unto  righteousness  :  by  whose  stripes  ye  were  healed.—  1  Peter  ii.  24. 

Were  I  to  announce  to  you,  as  an  introduction  to  my  sermon,  that 
I  am  come  to  make  known  to  you  a  medicine  which  should  cure  all 
your  disorders  ;  put  an  end  to  all  vour  pains  ;  make  you  all  immortal ; 
16 


242  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

•what  attention  should  I  secure  !  And  jet,  I  cayi  make  such  an  intro- 
duction, only  with  this  one  remark,  that  the  medicine  is  for  the  soul, 
and  not  for  the  body.  And  if  any  of  you  should  look  blank,  and  say 
—  Is  this  all  ?  I  may  return  to  such  inquirers,  and  say  —  No  :  this  is 
not  all ;  for  though  your  bodies  be  dead,  by  this  they  shall  live  again, 
and  be  united  in  due  time  to  the  everlasting  Spirit.  For  this  life  is  as 
some  gallant  vessel  which  takes  a  little  boat  in  tow  ;  and  not  only  pre- 
vents it  from  being  swamped  and  carried  down  to  the  bottom,  but  causes 
it  to  ride  safely  with  it  to  the  destined  harbor  :  thus  shall  the  spirit 
ransomed  bear  aloft  the  body  also  to  a  throne  of  immortality  in  the 
presence  of  Grod  and  the  Lamb.  Come,  then,  and  let  me  invite  you  to 
listen  to  the  apostle's  proclamation  :  "  Who  his  own  self  bare  our  sins 
in  his  own  body  on  the  tree,  that  we,  being  dead  to  sins,  should  live  unto 
righteousness  ;  by  whose  stripes  ye  were  healed  ; "  for  here  is  a  double 
transfer  announced  —  a  transfer  of  guilt  from  the  sinner  to  the  inno- 
cent ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  benefit  is  transferred  from  the  inno- 
cent to  the  guilty. 

To  the  first  part  of  the  subject,  then,  let  us  bend  our  attention  —  a 
transfer  of  guilt  from  the  sinner  to  the  innocent.  If  any  one  be 
shocked  at  this  language,  I  call  upon  him  to  receive  it  as  truth,  unless 
he  would  have  us  renounce  our  hope,  and  in  despair  say,  Heaven  is 
lost !  And  we  are  but  embryos  of  lost  sjDirits  !  for  he  must  acknowl- 
edge that  we  are  sinners  :  this  all  confess  ;  and,  if  we  die  guilty,  we  go 
from  the  place  of  judgment  to  the  place  of  perdition.  "  The  soul  that 
sinneth,  it  shall  die."  Man  being  a  sinner,  in  the  ordinary  and  strict 
course  of  justice,  nothing  remains  but  this.  And  if  you  allow  these 
things  to  be  so,  I  ask  you  whether  you  must  not  be  prepared  to  meet 
with  something  strange  in  the  gospel  ?  And  accordingly,  here  you 
find  it.     For, 

1.  The  sin  was  ours.  This  the  apostle  declares  plainly.  A  preach 
er  is  expected  to  define  his  subject  —  but  how  shall  I  define  sin  ?  It 
is  too  deep  to  be  explained  —  too  dark  to  be  examined  ;  like  the  hell  to 
which  it  leads,  too  horrible  to  be  dwelt  upon.  The  apostle  calls  it, 
•"  exceeding  sinful."  Sin  is  not  only  the  worst  thing  in  the  universe, 
it  is  the  onlt/  evil  thing :  take  away  this,  and  there  is  no  evil  in  the  uni- 
versal world.  All  penal  evil  is  only  the  consequence  of  moral  evil. 
There  is  in  sin  an  intrinsic  evil.  Sin  is  an  evil  which  has  in  it  no  ame- 
lioration :  it  is  evil,  and  only  evil,  and  evil  continually.  But  whatever 
sin  be,  we  have  committed  it,  and  it  is  ours.  And  you  will  observe, 
that  the  apostle  uses  the  plural  "  our  sins  "  they  are  many  :  —  "  My 
sins,"  said  one,  "  are  more  in  number  than  the  hairs  of  my  head."-- 
Who  can  tell  his  errors  ?     Were  I  to  ask  the  best  arithmetician  to  ca»< 

y 


THE    DOUBLE    TRANSFER.  243 

up  the  amount,  he  would  declare  that  he  had  no  powers  by  which  to 
express  the  mighty  sum.  One  penitent,  when  looking  back  on  the 
sins  of  his  life,  cried  out,  "  Infinite,  infinite  !  "  And  if  one  said  so  of 
the  sins  of  one,  what  may  we  say  of  them  all,  when  they  are  all  thrown 
together  as  in  one  joint  stock,  and  we  say  "  our  sins  !  "  Who  can  tell 
their  number  then  ?  Surely,  then,  we  must  multiply  infinite  by  infi- 
nite.    Yet  such  were  the  sms  which  were  laid  on  the  Lord  ;  for, 

2.  The  burden  ivas  Ms.  Yes,  though  the  sins  were  ours,  the  bur- 
den was  his; —  he,  "  his  own  self,  bare  our  sins."  The  Scriptures 
employ  a  variety  of  figures  to  denote  the  same  thing :  sometimes  sin  is 
spoken  of  as  a  debt,  but  he  paid  it ;  —  as  a  disease,  but  he  endured  it ; 
as  a  burden,  but  he  sustained  it.  That  was  a  burden  which  "  fools 
make  a  mock  "  of;  and  which  to  most  men  is  a  "  trifle,  light  as  air  ;  " 
but  O,  it  will  be  bitterness  in  the  end  !  One  cried  out,  "  My  sins  are 
heavier  than  the  sands  of  the  sea !  My  spirit  is  drunk  up  by  the 
poison  of  the  arrows  of  God  !  "  0,  my  dear  hearers,  were  you  awake 
to  a  sense  of  your  real  state,  you  would  enter  into  the  views  of  a  poor 
man,  who  said  to  a  minister,  a  friend  of  mine,  "  Sir,  I  seem  as  if  a 
heavy  weight  of  lead  were  lying  on  my  heart !  "  0,  there  is  no  bear- 
ing up  against  it,  when  it  is  brought  home  to  the  conscience  by  the 
Holy  Spirit !  "  The  spirit  of  a  man  will  sustain  his  infirmity  ;  but  a 
wounded  spirit  who  can  bear  "  "  When  he  giveth  quietness,  who  then 
can  make  trouble  ?  And  when  he  hideth  his  face,  who  then  can  behold 
him  ?  And  if  he  make  a  man  to  feel  that  he  is  displeased  ;  that  the 
Almighty  has  no  favor  to  him  in  his  present  state  ;  and  that  there  is  no 
heaven  for  him  hereafter,  no  language  can  describe  the  weight  that  is 
on  the  spirit  of  such  a  man ! 

Yet  this  weight  Christ  bore !  Not  the  burden  of  having  committed 
these  sins  —  not  the  shame  of  conscious  transgression !  No  :  he  "  did 
no  sin,  and  in  his  mouth  no  guile  was  found."  Nothing  but  a  lamb, 
"  without  spot  and  blemish,"  could  be  placed  on  God's  altar  ;  and 
unless  Christ  had  been  a  lamb  "  without  spot  and  blemish,"  he  never 
could  have  been  "  the  Lamb  of  God."  But  the  burden  of  the  agony  : 
the  burden  of  a  just  sense  of  the  anger  of  God  against  sin  ;  the  burden 
of  the  ignominy  and  shame  ;  —  all  these  laid  heavy  on  his  soul.  He 
complained  in  agony ;  he  sorrowed  even  unto  death.  No  pain  was 
inflicted,  as  yet,  on  his  body;  there  was,  as  yet,  no  stroke  to  bring 
forth  blood,  yet  the  very  anguish  of  his  soul  caused  him  to  "  sweat  as 
it  were  great  drops  of  blood."  And,  through  life,  he  looked  not  like  a 
man  of  spotless  innocence,  all  light,  and  gay,  and  buoyant ;  he  was 
always  as  a  man  ashamed.  "  He  Avas  oppressed,  and  he  was  afflicted  :  " 
he  looked  like  a  man  who  was  "  stricken  and  smitten  of  God  ; "  he  had 


244  THE    ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

the  constant  appearance  of  "  a  man  of  sorrows,  and  acquainted  with 
grief."  He  knew  what  it  was  to  bear  a  burden  on  his  spirits ;  and  it 
was  our  sins  which  lay  heavy  on  his  soul. 

But  the  apostle  speaks  with  emphasis  here,  and  he  says,  "  who  Jiis 
oivn  self  bare  our  sins."  "  His  own  self!  "  As  if  the  apostle  would 
remind  you  of  the  dignity  of  his  nature  ;  the  purity  of  his  character ; 
the  excellence  of  his  life ;  the  greatness  of  his  sacrifice.  That  the 
king  should  take  upon  him  the  crimes  of  his  subjects !  That  the  foun- 
tain of  justice  and  purity  should  be  arraigned  at  an  earthly  tribunal, 
and  become  hable  to  suffer  as  a  worker  of  iniquity.  "  His  own  self!  " 
As  if  the  apostle  would  remind  you,  too,  of  his  ability ;  of  one 
"  mighty  to  save  !  "  of  one  whose  "  own  arm  brought  salvation  ;  "  of 
one  who  Avas  Almighty  ;  of  one  who,  when  he  took  this  heavy  burden 
upon  him,  proved  clearly  that  he  was  able  to  bear  it  all. 

The  Apostle  reminds  you,  too,  that  this  was  done  "  in  Ms  otvn  hodyP 
Not  that  his  body  suffered  chiefly,  or  only  ;  the  most  affecting  scene  of 
his  agonies  was  before  his  body  suffered  ;  and  on  the  cross  he  com- 
plained chiefly  of  mental  agony:  —  "My  God!  my  God!  why  hast 
thou  forsaken  me  ?  "  But  it  was  only  by  taking  a  body  upon  him  that 
he  could  be  made  of  the  seed  of  David  according  to  the  flesh,  though 
he  was  still  "  God  over  all  "  according  to  the  Spirit.  And  it  was  in 
the  body  that  he  was  to  suffer ;  it  was  during  his  abode  in  the  flesh 
alone  that  he  could  do  this ;  and  when  his  body  had  suffered  all  that 
was  required,  "he  said,  It  is  finished  !  and  he  bowed  his  head,  and 
gave  up  the  ghost." 

The  apostle  adds,  "  on  the  tree^  "  Who  his  own  self  bare  our 
sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree  ;  "  alluding  to  the  cross  of  wood  on 
which  he  suffered,  which  was  made  from  a  tree,  and  to  remind  us,  also, 
it  is  probable,  of  the  way  in  which  we  fell.  By  one  tree  we  fell,  by 
another  we  rise.  By  eating  of  the  forbidden  tree  we  fell ;  by  believing 
in  the  true  cross  we  live.  "  Christ  hath  redeemed  us  from  the  curso 
of  the  law,  being  made  a  curse  for  us  ;  for  it  is  written.  Cursed  is  every 
one  that  hangeth  on  a  tree ;  that  the  blessing  of  Abraham  might 
come  on  the  Gentiles  through  Jesus  Christ." 

But  you  say.  How  could  it  he  that  one  could  suffer  for  another  ?  I 
return  to  meet  your  inquiry.  I  ask  you.  Do  you  believe  the  account 
which  is  given  of  his  agonies  and  death  ?  I  can  account  for  these  but 
in  three  ways.  First :  That  Christ  w^as  guilty,  and  deserved  to  suffer ; 
at  this  you  are  shocked.  Then  the  second  is  scarcely  better  ;  that  a 
just  and  holy  God  punished  him,  an  innocent  person,  without  any 
cause,  as  a  vile,  wicked  person  desei-ved  to  be  treated.  And  if  you 
reject  these  two  reasons,  there  remains  only  a  third,  which  is  the  doc- 


THE   DOUBLE   TRANSFER.  245 

trine  of  the  text  —  that  Christ  endured  all  these  various  woes  that  he 
might  bear  the  burden  of  our  sins ;  that  he  might  offer  himself  as  a 
spotless  victim  to  the  divine  justice  ;  and  that  God,  who  cannot  pass  by 
sin,  might,  in  visiting  in  wrath  the  person  of  our  surety,  effectually 
punish  sin,  and  visit  the  sinner  in  mercy  and  in  grace. 

If  you  still  argue,  how  can  this  be  ?  I  answer,  that  God  has,  from 
the  first,  acted  towards  the  human  race  uniformly  in  a  wonderful  man- 
ner. Angels  sinned  singly ;  they  fell  singly  ;  they  were  punished 
singly.  But  with  man  it  was  otherwise  —  the  first  man  was  created  at 
the  head  of  all  his  race.  God  acts  towards  men  as  a  kind  of  mass. 
God  not  only  in  the  natural  world  has  made  one  man,  and  from  that 
one  caused  all  others  to  spring  to  the  end  of  time,  but  he  has  acted 
thus  in  a  moral  point  of  view  also.  We  all  fell  in  the  first  man  ;  he 
sinned,  and  we  are  sinners  too,  because  of  him.  If,  then,  you  regard 
this  representative  government  in  reference  to  man,  where  can  be  the 
diflSculty  of  his  so  acting  to  Christ  ?  Surely  you  can  more  readily 
conceive  how  God  can  show  favor  to  some,  because  he  is  pleased  with 
one,  than  you  can  how  he  should  be  displeased  with  many  because  of 
the  transgression  of  one  ?  You  admit  the  first  and  most  difficult  part 
of  the  subject ;  why  not  admit  the  second,  which  is,  that  God  could 
accept  of  the  sufferings  of  one  for  the  good  of  many  ? 

Secondly,  therefore,  let  us  notice  the  transfer  of  benefit  from  the 
innocent  to  the  guilty.  When  the  apostle  spalce  of  the  consequence 
of  guilt,  it  was  all  Christ's  ;  now  he  comes  to  speak  of  the  benefit,  we 
are  included.  Of  the  former  he  says,  "  Who  Ms  oivn  self  bare  our 
sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree."  Of  the  benefit,  he  says,  "  that  we, 
being  dead  to  sins,  should  live  unto  righteousness ;  by  whose  stripes  ye 
were  healed."  And  in  these  words  we  are  taught  that  the  death  of 
Christ  must  be  the  death  of  sin  in  us  ;  that  the  death  of  sin  must  be  the 
life  of  righteousness  ;  and  that  this  will  show  that  our  souls  are  healed 
through  his  stripes. 

1.  We  are  here  taught  that  the  death  of  Christ  must  he  the  death  of 
sin  in  us.  "  That  we,  being  dead  to  sin."  Before  we  were  alive  to 
him,  we  were  alive  to  nothing  else  but  sin,  though  it  was  the  very 
worst  kind  of  life.  Death  and  life  are  sometimes  strangely  mixed — 
as  when  a  corpse  is  so  putrid  as  to  become  the  prey  of  worms,  you 
say  it  is  alive  —  it  is  all  alive  !  A  strange  expression  to  use  as  to  what 
is  so  vert/  dead  !  So  the  Apostle  speaks  of  "  walking  according  to  the 
course  of  this  world  "  when  we  were  "  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins." 
But  to  be  dead  to  sin,  0  it  is  a  grand  affair  !  Let  us  take  care  that 
there  be  no  deception  here.  Many  suppose  that  they  are  dead  to  sin 
because  they  are  almost  dead  in  body ;  or  because  they  are  half  dead 


246  THE    ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

through  fear ;  or  because,  by  old  age,  they  are  become  weak  and 
impotent. 

Under  affliction  a  man  sees  himself  half  dead  in  body,  and  then  he 
fancies  sin  is  dead.  "  Oh  !  "  he  cries,  "  I  see  how  sinfullhavc  been ! 
0,  what  an  awful  thing  sin  is  !  0,  if  God  does  but  spare  me,  how  will 
I  live  to  him  !  "  Well,  God  does  spare  him,  and  then  the  proverb  is 
fulfilled,  "  When  the  sick  man  became  well  he  was  worse  than  before." 
And  really  such  men  sin  with  such  eagerness,  that  they  seem  to  be  try- 
ing to  make  up  for  lost  time  ;  they  are  more  greedy  after  sin  because 
of  then-  short  fast.  My  hearers,  if  you  are  afflicted,  and  no  change 
takes  place,  you  may  be  sure  that  sin  is  not  dead.  I  warn  you,  by  all 
the  terrors  of  eternity,  against  the  delusion  of  supposing,  that  because 
you  yourselves  are  half  dead  by  sickness,  that  therefore  sin  is  dead 
in  you. 

Again  ;  some  suppose  that  they  are  dead  to  sin,  because  hy  alarm 
of  mind,  they  are  half  dead  through  fear.  Thus  we  read  of  Nabal, 
that  when  his  wife  told  him  what  had  been  threatened  him  by  David, 
"  his  heart  died  within  him,  and  he  became  as  a  stone."  When  they 
witness  the  death  of  a  dear  friend,  or  see  some  one  drop  down  dead 
by  their  side,  or  hear  of  some  dreadful  and  alarming  accident,  and  thus 
they  themselves  are  half  killed  by  terror,  they  imagine  sin  is  dead. 
But  time  does  wonders  :  the  terror  is  softened  down ;  the  fluttering 
hearts  become  composed  ;  and  they  turn  away  to  iniquity  as  before. 
Just  as  a  man  about  to  be  gibbeted  for  his  crimes,  suddenly  receives  a 
reprieve,  and  then  turns  to  all  his  crimes  again,  though  he  had  every 
mark  of  penitence  when  he  supposed  death  near.  A  poor  woman  was 
once  about  to  commit  suicide ;  she  did  what  she  imagined  would  cause 
her  death  ;  the  Doctor  did  all  he  could,  though  he  considered  that  all 
would  be  in  vain  ;  then  she  died,  indeed,  to  sin  ;  but  some  symptoms 
of  returning  strength  began  to  appear,  s^nd  from  that  vert/  moment  there 
were  also  symptoms  of  apostacy  !  No,  my  hearers,  there  is  no  depen- 
dence to  be  placed  on  the  disgust  with  sin  which  is  occasioned  by  the 
fear  of  death. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  old  age,  and  of  persons  going  out  of  the 
world.  Because  the  power  to  sin  has  left  them  ;  because  they  can  no 
longer  eat  or  drink,  or  taste  or  see  ;  because  they  are  become  half 
dead,  a  sort  of  carcases  upon  the  earth  ;  —  they  imagine  themselves 
to  be  dead  to  sin.  But^  0,  if  they  could  have  new  blood  infused  into 
the  veins,  we  should  at  once  see  all  their  sins  spring  up  into  vigor  and 
activity  as  before ! 

The  fact  is,  that  there  is  no  death  to  sin  but  through  the  death  of 
Christ.     Is  it  not  said,  "  He  bare  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree, 


THE   DOFELE   Tr.AXSFER.  247 

that  we  mlglit  be  dead  to  sins  ?  "  And  if  we  could  Lave  been  dead  to 
sin  without  this,  would  he  have  endured  all  his  agony  and  sliame,  and 
at  length  have  died  upon  the  cross  ?  No  :  it  is  a  stab  at  the  heart  that 
is  fatal ;  and  never  are  we  sti-uck  to  the  heart  till  we  see  Christ,  the 
innocent,  becoming  our  sacrifice,  taking  our  load  upon  him,  and  endur- 
ing unutterable  anguish  on  our  account.  Then  are  we  touched  to  tho 
heart ;  we  feel  to  the  quick  ;  we  are  alive  to  a  sense  of  what  he  endured 
for  us.  Then  we  say,  "  God  forbid  that  I  should  glory,  save  in  the 
cross  of  Jesus,  my  Lord  !  "  Then,  when  pressed  under  the  load  of 
sin,  we  behold  him  bearing  our  burden,  and  our  hearts  are  made  light 
and  gladsome.  Then  love  melts  us,  and  mercy  brings  us  down  :  and 
henceforth  we  die  to  that  accursed  thing  which  brought  our  Lord  to 
his  death.  Then  we  become  "  dead  to  sins  ;  "  as  a  cancer  is  not  erad- 
icated from  the  human  frame  till  every  fibre  is  removed  ;  so  the  cancer 
of  sin  is  not  wholly  destroyed  in  our  souls  till  we  become  dead  to  sin 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

2.  We  are  taught  that  the  death  of  sin  must  he  the  life  of  righteous- 
ness. There  is  to  be  a  death  ;  but  there  must  also  be  a  life.  Christ 
said  to  the  Jews,  God  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living  ; 
for  all  live  unto  him  :  "  so  he  that  is  "  dead  to  sin  "  by  the  cross  of 
Christ,  is,  by  the  same  cross,  made  "  alive  to  righteousness ^  There 
is  a  vitality  in  religion  ;  and  the  soul  is  not  only  made  alive,  but  lively. 
"  To  be  carnally  minded  is  death  ;  "  —  a  poor,  dull  thing,  at  best :  — 
"  to  be  spiritually  minded,  is  life  and  peace."  At  the  same  time,  that 
there  is  calmness  in  our  own  souls,  we  are  all  activity  for  the  good  of  oth- 
ers. I  always  pity  a  man  who  is  going  on  in  a  cold,  dull,  heavy,  lead- 
like manner ;  and  if  it  does  not  speak  doubt  as  to  the  existence  of 
religion,  it  speaks  a  volume  as  to  its  want  of  excellence.  There  is  a 
life  in  all  true  religion  ;  it  has  but  little  of  the  snail  about  it.  If  we 
are,  indeed,  dead  to  sin,  we  shall  be  all  alive  to  righteousness.  I  love 
to  see  a  people  alive  ;  all  among  them  aiming  to  do  good  —  good  to  all 
around  them  :  their  heads  full  of  schemes,  their  hearts  full  of  love, 
their  hands  full  of  gifts  for  his  honor  and  glory. 

3.  All  this  shows  that  our  soids  are  healed  hy  his  strijyes.  There  is 
a  reference  in  these  words  to  the  53d  of  Isaiah  —  "  "With  his  stripes 
we  are  healed."  And  the  words  in  both  places  refer  to  his  scourging 
in  Pilate's  hall.  The  word  stripe  signifies  a  ivale ;  where,  in  conse- 
quence of  a  blow  or  cut  from  a  lash,  the  extra vasated  blood  is  seen  in  a 
blackish,  bluish  form,  under  the  skin.  But,  because  this  is  spoken  of 
as  one,  the  learned  Vitringi  supposes  that  it  applies  to  one  wound,  the 
body  of  Christ  being  wounded  all  over.     He  was  all  stripe  and  pain  ; 


248  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

we  are  all  ease  and  pleasure.  "  By  whose  stripes  ye  were  healed." — 
And  how  is  healing  indicated  ?     By  three  signs :  — 

By  disease  prevented  in  action.  Physicians  aim  at  this  ;  time  and 
nature,  they  say,  will  do  all  the  rest.  0  what  a  disease  is  sin  !  All 
that  is  seen  and  s-aid,  and  acted  under  its  influence,  is  wrong !  But 
when  we  come  to  be  healed  by  the  stripes  of  Christ,  diseased  action 
ceases :  we  see  aright,  both  as  to  ourselves  and  as  to  our  Savior ;  we 
hear  aright,  for  "blessed  are  the  people  that  know  the  joyful  sound;  " 
we  feel  aright,  there  is  a  pleasant  glow  through  our  whole  frame ;  all 
our  various  powers  act  aright,  for  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  benefit  of 
ourselves  and  others. 

By  the  removal  of  agonizing  sensation^  heahng  is  indicated.  All 
the  disordered  actions  we  perform  in  a  state  of  nature  produce  only 
wretchedness.  Many  a  sinner,  who  seems  happy,  wishes  he  were  a 
reptile  or  a  brute.  Colonel  Gardiner,  who  was  known  by  the  name  of 
"  the  happy  rake,"  on  seeing  a  dog  come  into  a  room  one  day,  wished 
he  were  that  dog !  But  this  disease  yields  to  the  healing  power  of  the 
cross  of  Christ.  Does  a  child  of  God,  does  a  man  healed  by  the 
stripes,  by  the  cross  of  Christ,  wish  he  were  a  dog,  or  wish  he  had 
never  been  born  ?  No  :  many  times  a  day  he  blesses  God  that  ever 
he  was  born  at  all ;  and  he  hopes  to  live  to  eternity,  and  rejoices  that 
he  shall  live  through  everlasting  ages.     Heahng  is  indicated,  also. 

By  the  obviating  of  threatening  danger.  This  is  an  important  thing 
in  cases  of  disease  :  it  is  the  danger  which  hangs  over  the  patient  that 
alarms  him.  It  is  not  merely  the  pain  and  languor  —  at  these  he  could 
smile  ;  but  he  fears  that  he  shall  die,  and  that  there  is  something  after 
death,  which,  though  unknown,  makes  him  wretched  beyond  measure. 
There  is  danger,  but  healkig  removes  this  danger  ;  renews  the  prospect 
of  life  for  many  years  to  come,  and  so  restores  tranquillity  and  pleas- 
ure. And  so  it  is  here  —  healing  by  the  wounds  of  Christ  obviates 
the  threatened  danger.  There  is  no  more  fear  of  death  ;  no,  that  is 
past :  there  is  no  more  dread  of  eternity ;  no,  for  that  is  lighted  up 
with  glory.  These  are'  the  blessed  consequences  of  healing  by  his 
stripes,  "  who  his  own  self  bare  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree, 
that  we  being  dead  to  sins,  should  live  unto  righteousness." 

And  now  to  apply.  And  here  I  shall  not  proceed  according  to  the 
usual  course  of  inquiry,  and  ask  you,  first,  if  you  are  diseased :  —  this 
I  know  ;  I  know  that  you  are  all  so.  But  I  will  ask  you,  if  you  have 
felt  your  disease  ?  A  sinner  is  like  a  man  frost-bitten  —  he  would  fain 
sleep ;  he  would  lie  down  in  the  snow  though  he  knows  that  by  so  doing  he 
must  die  !  and  his  friends  are  obliged  to  use  great  force  to  rouse  him,  and 
to  keep  him  from  dropping  off  to  sleep.  0,  sin  is  a  lethargy  of  the  most 


THE   DOUBLE   TRANSFEK.  249 

dreadful  Idnd  !  If  physical  sounds  could  waken,  I  could  wish  for  a  voice 
of  thunder,  and  for  lungs  of  brass,  that  I  might  cry,  "  Awake,  thou 
that  sleepest !  What  meanest  thou,  0  sleeper  ?  0  awake,  arise  !  " 
But  ah  !  'tis  not  the  voice  that  reaches  the  ear,  'tis  not  physical  exer- 
tions that  can  accomplish  this.  'Tis  the  mind  that  is  diseased  !  'tis  the 
mind  that  must  be  brought  to  see  and  feel.  0  come,  and  let  mind 
have  intercourse  with  mind !  let  me  speak  to  your  immortal  spirits. 
Must  not  your  spirits  have  been  lost,  but  for  him  who  "  bare  your  sins 
in  his  own  body  on  the  tree  ?  0  come  and  let  us  linger  round  the  cross, 
and  mark  all  the  ignominy,  the  pains,  the  agony,  the  blood !  Why 
was  all  this  ?  What  had  he  done  ?  He  had  done  nothing  but  what 
was  lovely  and  meritorious  ;  it  was  all  for  others  ;  it  was  all  for  the  guilty. 
Then,  have  you  obtained  an  interest  in  it  ?  Have  you  ever  become 
"  dead  to  sins,  and  alive  to  righteousness  ?  "  Has  there  ever  sprung 
up  within  you  a  concern  for  your  souls  —  for  righteousness  —  for  sal- 
vation —  for  everlasting  glory  ?  If  not,  you  are  not  yet  interested  in 
the  death  of  Christ. 

There  must  be  a  union  with  Christ.  In  order  that  he  might  be 
united  to  us,  he  became  a  man.  Angels  were  not  bettered  by  his 
coming,  for  he  never  became  an  angel.  There  must,  I  repeat  it,  be 
some  union  with  him :  we  must,  ourselves,  feel  something  of  the  agony 
of  the  cross  operating  upon  our  minds,  and  teaching  us  the  evil  of  sin 
—  the  danger  of  our  souls  —  the  wonders  of  his  love  —  the  faithful- 
ness of  his  promise ;  we  must  venture  our  whole  souls  upon  him,  we 
must  cast  ourselves  alone  on  the  mercy  of  the  Savior.  Has  there  been 
this  personal  intercourse  with  Christ  ?  If  not,  do  not  flatter  yourselves 
that  you  are  any  better  for  his  bearing  the  burden  of  sin,  "  in  his  own 
body  upon  the  tree."  But  if  you  are  not,  such  a  burden, —  a  burden 
at  which  God  so  expressed  his  abhorrence, —  still  lies  heavy  on  your 
souls  !  And  if  you  go  out  of  the  world,  and  such  a  burden  presses 
upon  you,  how  low  do  you  suppose  it  will  sink  you  ?     Who  can  tell  ? 

• "  in  the  lowest  deep,  a  lower  deep 


Still  threat'ning  to  devour  you,  opens  wide !  " 

"  Who  among  you  can  dwell  with  everlasting  burnings  ?  "  Your  "  feet 
shall  slide  in  due  time."  Do  you  exclaim, 'Where  then  shall  I  flee  ? 
Flee  to  him  "  who,  his  own  self,  bare  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the 
tree."  But  will  he  receive  me  ?  Will  he  not  receive  you  ?  Where- 
fore did  he  bear  that  heavy  burden  ?  He  did  not  bear  it  for  nothing ; 
and  when  he  sees  you  casting  yourselves  at  his  feet  as  a  penitent,  he 
sees  "  of  the  travail  of  his  soul."  and  he  will  blot  out  your  offences, 


250  THE   ENGLISH   PULriT. 

and  say  with  exultation,  "  Now  I  am  glad  I  died,  for  that  poor  sinner 
Uves  ! '' 

0  let  those  who  are  alive  through  Christ,  cherish  the  warmest  grati- 
tude !  Live  to  righteousness  alone.  Never  trifle  with  jour  souls. 
Seek  to  enjoy  more  and  more  of  that  healthful  state  of  mind  which  is 
to  you  a  pledge  of  everlasting  bliss  in  the  presence  of  God. 


SERMON   XXI. 

EARTHLY   THINGS   TRANSITORY,  HEAVENLY   THINGS   SUBSTANTIAL. 

BY  REV.  JAMES  BROMLEY. 

'•  The  voice  said,  Cry.  And  he  said,  What  shall  I  cry  ?  All  flesh,  is  grass,  and  aU  the 
goodliness  thereof  is  as  the  flower  of  the  field :  the  grass  withereth,  the  flower  fadeth ;  because 
the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  bloweth  upon  it :  surely  the  people  is  grass.  The  grass  withereth,  the 
flower  fadeth:  but  the  word  of  our  God  shall  stand  for  ever."  —  Isaiah  xl.  6  —  8. 

The  chapter  out*  of  which  my  text  is  taken,  is,  perhaps,  the  most 
magnificent  piece  of  verse  ever  penned  by  any  author,  of  any  age. 
Its  dignity,  its  energy,  its  sublimity,  its  point,  are  without  parallel  in 
the  language  of  man.  By  the  common  consent  of  Christian  exposi- 
tors, the  text  and  its  connection  have  reference  to  Gospel  times ;  and, 
indeed,  we  have  the  authority  of  the  New  Testament  writers  also,  in 
applying  it  to  John  the  Baptist,  as  the  forerunner  of  Christ,  and  to 
Christ  himself. 

It  seems  to  have  been  the  custom  of  the  monarchs  of  antiquity, 
whenever  they  went  on  any  expedition,  to  send  a  herald  before  them  to 
announce  their  approach,  to  level  mountains,  to  raise  valleys,  and  to 
remove  every  impediment  out  of  the  way.  King  Messiah  is  here 
represented  as  about  to  commence  that  career  of  conquest,  of  glory, 
and  of  salvation,  which  is  destined  never  to  terminate,  till  all  the  nations 
of  the  world  shall  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  God,  and  of  his  Christ. 
His  messenger,  John  the  Baptist,  is  said  to  go  before  him  to  prepare 
his  way :  "  The  voice  of  him  that  crieth  in  the  -svilderness.  Prepare  ye 
the  way  of  the  Lord,  make  straight  in  the  desert  a  highway  for  our 
God.  Every  valley  shall  be  exalted,  and  every  mountain  and  hill  shall 
be  made  low  :  and  the  crooked  shall  be  made  straight,  and  the  rough 
places  plain ;  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  shall  be  revealed,  and  all  flesh 


EARTHLY   THINGS   TRANSITORY.  251 

shall  see  it  together:  for  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  hath  spoken  it.'* 
When  this  work  was  done,  command  was  given  to  make  another  proc- 
lamation :  —  "  The  voice  said,  Crj.  And  he  said.  What  shall  I  cry  ?  " 
to  which  the  answer  seems  to  be,  in  order  to  illustrate  the  worth,  the 
truth,  the  excellency,  and  the  dispensation  about  to  be  given  to  the 
world  ;  to  put  it  in  contrast  with  all  which  the  world  contains  —  with 
all  that  forms  the  pride,  the  dignity,  the  glory  of  man :  cry  this  — 
"  All  flesh  is  grass,  and  all  the  goodliness  thereof  is  as  the  flower  of 
the  field  ;  the  grass  withereth,  the  flower  fadeth :  because  the  Spii'it 
(or  wind)  of  the  Lord  bloweth  upon  it ;  surely  the  people  is  grass. 
The  grass  withereth,  the  flower  fadeth  ;  but  the  word  of  our  God  shall 
stand  for  ever." 

With  an  authority  certainly  much  less,  but,  in  a  sense,  as  real,  every 
genuine  minister  of  the  word  of  God  is  called  upon  to  make  proclama- 
tion of  the  vanity  and  nothingness,  of  the  fleeting,  transitory  nature 
of  all  worldly  good.  And,  to  say  the  truth,  this  is  one  of  the  excep- 
tions taken  to  his  character :  he  is  called  a  harbinger  of  trouble,  of 
sorrow,  and  of  tears;  the  plaints  of  distress  are  supposed  to  follow  in 
his  train ;  and  his  discourses  are  often  shunned  and  disregarded.  But 
this  does  not  alter  the  nature  of  things ;  this  does  not  stamp  value  on 
that  which  is  valueless.  I  smile  when  I  see  a  gay  young  man  turn 
away  from  a  discourse  on  the  vanity  of  earthly  things ;  but  this  does 
not  change  his  state.  The  patient  may  chase  -  from  his  chamber  the 
honest  physician  who  tells  him  his  real  state  ;  but  that  does  not  make 
him  less  a  dying  man. 

I  propose  to  set  before  you  from  the  text,  first,  the  transitory  nature 
of  all  earthly  things  ;  and,  secondly,  the  durability  of  that  dispensation 
of  truth  with  which  God  has  blessed  the  world. 

I.  The  transitory  nature  of  all  earthly  things. 

"  All  flesh  is  grass,  and  all  the  goodliness  thereof  is  as  the  flower  of 
the  field."  Let  us  consider  some  of  those  things  which  constitute  the 
goodliness  and  the  glory  of  man,  and  see  how  they  justify  the  asser- 
tion in  the  text.     They  are, 

1.  Personal  endowments  of  heauty  and  of  form.  We  make  our 
boast  of  beauty ;  of  the  sparkling  eye  ;  of  comely  features.  We  make 
our  boast  of  strength ;  of  the  muscular,  well-built,  form  ;  of  the  strong, 
athletic  frame  ;  of  dexterity  and  activity.  Small  is  our  cause  for 
boast !  That  body  which  seemed  to  concentrate  in  it  all  that  was  beau- 
tiful and  charming  ;  see  it  when  wasted  by  accidents  and  by  time  — 
when  brought  down  by  sickness  —  when  blasted  by  the  touch  of  death  ! 
Look  at  it :  —  where  the  eye  once  danced  with  joy,  the  slimy  reptile 


252  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

crawls  and  riots  !  Where  is  the  beauty  of  form  ?  exhaled  in  putres- 
cent air ;  odious  and  disgusting.  Look  at  that  muscular  man,  whose 
shoulder  the  hand  of  sickness  has  brought  down  to  dust,  and  made  food 
for  reptiles  and  for  worms  !  Look  at  him  now,  and  then  feel  and  con- 
fess the  force  of  the  representation  in  the  text  —  "  All  flesh  is  grass, 
and  all  the  goodliness  thereof  is  as  the  flower  of  the  field."  Perhaps 
it  is  not  possible  to  choose  a  more  appropriate  figure  :  —  a  flower  is  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  objects  in  nature.  In  the  swiftness  of  its  growth  — 
the  delicacy  of  its  form  —  the  elegance  of  its  colors — and  the  exqms- 
iteness  of  its  fragrance, —  it  is  an  emblem  of  youth  ;  but  it  is  an  emblem 
of  its  dangers  too !  Nipt  by  the  chilling  wind  —  or  plucked  by  the 
ruthless  hand  —  or  trodden  by  the  foot  of  violence  !  it  is  first  spoiled, 
and  then  cast  out  as  worthless ! 

"  So  blooms  the  human  face  divine, 

When  youth  its  pride  of  beauty  shows ; 
Fairer  than  spring  the  colors  shine, 

And  sweeter  than  the  virgin  rose. 
Or  worn  by  slowly  rolling  years. 

Or  broke  by  sickness  in  a  day, 
Thy  fading  glory  disappears, 

The  short-liv'd  beauties  die  away." 

•  The  text  may  be  illustrated, 

2.  By  adverting  to  the  wisdom,  as  well  as  to  the  beauty  and  strength 
of  man.  Since  the  attention  of  man  was  first  directed  to  the  objects 
of  nature,  what  an  innumerable  succession  has  there  been  of  notions, 
of  systems,  of  theories,  of  hypotheses,  almost  without  end.  And  yet 
each  in  their  day  was  regarded  as  truth :  the  abettors  of  them  laid 
down  their  arguments  —  came  to  conclusions  —  and  said,  all  this  is 
true  ;  all  this  is  demonstration.  And  yet  we  look  on  these  ill-digested 
systems  as  belonging  only  to  days  which  are  gone  by,  and  as  now 
utterly  exploded ;  and  we  imagine  that  the  perfection  of  science,  the 
perfection  of  art,  the  perfection  of  philosophy,  has  been  reserved 
for  our  times.  Alas  for  us  !  there  will  rise  up  another  generation  ; 
and  they  will  look  back  on  the  nineteenth  century,  and,  in  their  turn, 
smile  at  the  shallowness  of  our  science,  and  laugh  at  the  puny 
knowledge  which  we  acquired.  For  the  fact  is,  that  all  knowledge, 
except  that  which  is  derived  from  the  Bible,  is  destined  to  pass  away. 
"  Whether  there  be  tongues,  they  shall  cease  ;  whether  there  be 
knowledge,  it  shall  vanish  away." 

3.  Advert  to  the  transitory  nature  of  those  things  which  are  the 
jproduce  of  the  imagination  and  taste.  Whatever  the  pencil  of  the 
painter  has  portrayed ;  whatever  the  chisel  of  the  sculptor  has  wrought; 
whatever  the  skill  of  the  architect  has  reared ;  whatever  is  accounted 
rare  or  beautiful ;  whatever  general  consent  has  declared  to  be  valuable  ; 


EARTHLY  THINGS  TRANSITORY.  253 

all  these  are  destined  shortly  to  be  destroyed.  This  may  be  demon 
strated  ;  the  fine  arts,  as  they  are  termed,  were  never  carried  to  a 
greater  degree  of  perfection  than  in  Athens  and  Greece  ;  never  did 
science  appear  so  fully  to  triumph.  But  time  has  trampled  down  all 
their  magnificence  and  glory  ;  and  barbarians  have  trodden  under  foot 
the  monuments  of  art  they  were  incapable  of  appreciating.  And  shall 
the  fine  arts  of  Great  Britain  share  a  better  fate  ?  Ah,  no !  all  that 
which  fascinates  our  attention,  or  engages  our  study,  is  doomed  to  be 
swept  away  into  eternal  oblivion  by  the  resistless  hand  of  time.  This 
should  convey  a  very  forcible  reproof  to  those  who  expend  so  large  a 
portion  of  their  time  in  the  embellishments  of  life,  in  dress,  and  in 
furniture,  and  in  equipages.  I  grieve  when  I  see  an  immortal  soul 
which  is  to  be  in  a  few  days  in  heavenly  glory  or  in  hell  fire  ;  when  I 
see  that  soul  convulsed,  tossed,  elated,  by  some  trifle  which  the  wind 
of  heaven  will  to-morrow  consign  to  eternal  oblivion  !  If  we  must  be 
excited,  let  it  be  by  something  which  will  remain  !  The  truth  of  the 
text  appears, 

4.  In  reference  to  the  possessions  of  men,  —  wealth  and  fortune,  and 
their  concomitants,  —  grandeur,  eminence,  pomp,  and  luxury.  It  is  a 
remarkable  fact,  that  God  has  been  pleased  to  make  these  pass  from 
nation  to  nation  —  from  family  to  family  —  from  man  to  man.  "  Riches 
certainly  make  themselves  wings  ;  they  fly  away,  as  an  eagle  toward 
heaven  ;  "  —  and  yet  it  is  on  riches  that  the  hearts  of  men,  corrupted 
and  degenerate,  generally  fix.  All  men,  but  those  whose  souls  are 
purged  from  low  desire  and  fixed  on  the  things  which  are  above,  set 
their  hearts  on  gold  ;  and  yet,  under  the  sun,  there  is  not  another  gift 
more  fluctuating.  Look  at  those  who  came  over  to  this  country  at  the 
time  of  the  Norman  conquest.  They  took  possession  of  the  lands  of 
this  fair  isle  ;  they  called  them  after  their  own  names  ;  they  left  them 
to  their  heirs  ;  and  they  enjoyed  them  for  a  few  generations.  But 
their  posterity  have  sunk  into  complete  obscurity  ;  other  families  have 
been  fetched  out  of  the  obscure  crowd,  and  from  the  very  dung-hill 
have  come  to  be  kings  and  nobles  in  our  land.  Poets  have  a  very 
significant  way  of  stating  this: — fortune,  as  they  term  it,  is  repre- 
sented with  a  wheel  in  perpetual  motion ;  the  radius  that  now  lifts  the 
individual  towards  heaven  is  gradually  lowered,  till  it  turns  in  the  dust ; 
it  then  begins  to  rise,  and  points  again  to  the  skies.  Such  is  the 
succession  of  grandeur  and  of  wealth ! 

5.  As  strikingly  is  this  illustrated  by  the  emptiness  of  that  shape- 
less thing,  —  that  shadow  of  a  shade,  in  which  you  have,  no  doubt,  an- 
ticipated my  application,  — that  thing  called /amg.  You  have  observed 
on  a  fine  sky,  a  cloud :    it  has  taken  this  form,  and  that  form,  and 


254  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

your  fancy  has  given  it  many  forms:  you  have  looked  again,  and  you 
could  not  find  it  —  it  has  passed  away  for  ever  !  Such  is  the  form,  the 
something,  pursued  for  years,  hestowed  by  folly  and  ignorance,  enjoyed 
for  a  moment,  and  followed  by  loss,  reproach,  and  ignominy  !  Such  is 
that  worthless  thing  called  popularity  !  0,  if  my  soul,  in  an  unguarded 
moment  has  fixed  its  thoughts  upon  it,  forgive  the  folly  !  and  let  me  be 
placed  in  any  situation,  however  low,  where  I  may  please  Him ;  rather 
than  in  any  situation,  however  eminent,  where  honor  and  piety  are  to 
be  placed  at  the  feet  of  popular  applause  !  and  yet,  how  eager  are  men 
for  it !  The  poet's  song,  the  historian's  record,  the  trophied  column, 
the  monument  of  marble  or  of  brass, —  have  all  been  employed  to  per- 
petuate the  monarch's  and  the  hero's  fame.  But  do  we  know  anything 
so  calculated  to  stamp  folly  upon  this,  as  the  very  means  which  are  em- 
ployed to  perpetuate  it  ?       . 

6.  See  it  illustrated,  also,  as  to  dominion  ayid  power .  Kingdoms  and 
empires  rise  and  fall  —  flourish  and  decay.  Thrones  are  overturned  ; 
crowns  are  transferred ;  sceptres  are  broken  ;  dynasties  are  overthrown. 
Where  are  now  Persia,  Babylon,  Assyria,  Nineveh,  and  Rome?  Daniel 
saw  the  mighty  monarcliies  represented  as  a  great  image,  the  head 
of  which  was  of  fine  gold,  the  breast  and  arms  of  silver,  the  belly  and 
thighs  of  brass,  the  legs  of  iron,  the  feet  part  of  iron  and  part  of  clay. 
The  catastrophe  of  this  image  also  is  supplied:  —  a  stone  cut  out  of  the 
mountain  smote  the  image  and  brake  it  in  pieces,  and  it  became  "  like 
the  chaff  of  the  summer  threshing  floors,  and  the  wind  carried  them 
away,  that  no  place  was  found  for  them."  An  instance  of  this  has  oc- 
curred in  our  own  times : —  the  day  is  not  very  distant  when  the  name 
of  Napoleon  was  feared  by  many  hearts.  Conquest  seemed  to  be  given 
into  his  hands  ;  the  angel  of  Victory  accompanied  him  in  his  march  and 
the  angel  of  Desolation  followed  in  his  train.  He  bestowed  thrones  at 
his  will,  as  trifles  ;  empires  were  too  narrow  for  him  ;  and  his  armies 
carried  their  successes  over  half  the  world.  His  dominion  seemed  to 
be  a  fair  and  beautiful  fabric  :  its  foundations  were  deep  —  its  super- 
structure rose  high  —  its  turrets  touched  the  skies.  But  it  was  all  a 
shadow  ;  and,  touched  by  a  spear  in  an  Almighty  band,  it  vanished  as 
though  it  had  never  been  !  But  why  do  I  dwell  on  these  things  ?  Por, 

Finally,  The  world  itself  is  an  illustration  of  the  sentiment  in  the 
text.  The  globe  itself,  on  which  we  dwell,  after  it  has  borne  generation 
after  generation,  —  the  great  globe  itself,  is  appointed  to  be  the  last 
and  most  affecting  illustration  of  this  truth.  Since  the  world  first 
came  out  of  the  hands  of  its  Maker,  what  changes  has  it  under- 
gone, by  diluvian  waters,  or  by  subterranean  fires  !  And  it  is  soon  des- 
tined to  pass  away.     The  figure  in  the  text  is  almost  as  applicable  to 


HEAVENLY   THINGS    SUBSTANTIAL.  256 

the  woi'lJ,  as  it  is  to  anything  connected  ^vith  the  present  life.  And 
as  a  person,  accnstonied  to  behold  a  beautiful  flower  in  a  parterre, 
should  retire  for  a  moment,  and,  on  returning,  behold  that  beauteous 
flower  gone ;  so  we  may  conceive  will  angels  and  archangels  one  day 
turn  their  eyes  to  the  spot  where  they  had  been  accustomed  to  behold 
this  glorious  orb,  the  world,  and,  to  their  astonishment,  find  it  gone 
from  its  sphere,  struck  from  the  works  of  God !  "  The  day  of  the , 
Lord  will  come  as  a  thief  in  the  night ;  in  the  which  the  heavens  shall 
pass  away  Avith  a  great  noise,  and  the  elements  shall  melt  with  fervent 
heat ;  the  earth  also,  and  all  the  works  that  are  therein,  shall  be  burnt 
up." 

This  may  seem  to  be  somewhat  of  a  departure  from  the  object  of 
our  present  assembly ;  yet,  as  the  Holy  Spirit  has  put  these  things 
in  contact,  I  thought  it  right  to  dwell  upon  them.  It  will,  however,  be 
a  rehef  to  myself,  and,  no  doubt,  to  you,  to  turn  from  the  meditation 
ill  which  I  have  indulged,  to  a  subject  more  in  unison  with  the  high 
hopes  which  swell  the  bosoms  of  those  who  are  now  before  me  ;  namely, 

II.   The  durability  op  that  dispensation  with  which  God  has 

BEEN  PLEASED  TO  BLESS  THE  WORLD. 

"  The  grass  withereth,  the  flower  fadeth ;  but  the  tvord  of  our  God 
sliall  stand  for  ever.^''  This  sentiment  is  greatly  illustrated,  and  abun- 
dantly confirmed,  by, 

1.  The  utter  impotence  of  persecution.  All  that  the  ingenuity  of 
the  devil  could  invent,  or  the  cruelty  of  man  inflict,  has  been  tried  to 
extirpate  the  spirit  of  religion  from  the  world.  From  the  day  that  the 
spirit  of  Antichrist  tasted  the  blood  of  the  first  martja*,  Stephen,  thou- 
sands have  fled  for  safety  to  the  forest  wilds ;  thousands  more  have  been 
shut  up  to  perish  in  the  dungeon's  gloom  ;  thousands  more  have  parted 
with  life  upon  the  cruel  rack  ;  while  thousands  more,  in  the  midst  of 
flames,  have  born  their  testimony  to  the  truth.  What  innumerable 
methods,  one  after  another,  have  been  tried  to  stop  the  progress  of  the 
truth  !  but  they  have  been  tried  in  vain  ;  or,  rather,  the  rage  of  per- 
secution has  been  followed  by  an  increase  of  the  disciples  of  the  Son 
of  God.  A  learned  friend  has  ventured  an  opinion,  that  at  no  period 
of  the  church's  history  has  there  been  found  a  real  dechne  in  the  num- 
bers of  the  friends  of  truth.  And  there  is  considerable  weight  in  the 
opinion  ;  such  outpourings  of  the  Spirit  —  such  secret  influence  on 
the  minds  of  men  —  such  e9"ect  from  the  examples  of  heroic  sufferers, 
on  the  consciences  of  the  beholders,  —  that  "  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  " 
has  truly  become  "  the  seed  of  the  church."  Sometimes,  it  is  true, 
persecution  has  appeared  to  triumph  ;  the  demon  has  appeared  to  tread 


256  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

the  cause  of  the  Redeemer  under  foot ;  but  it  has  only  been  in  appear- 
ance. Like  the  fabled  Phoenix,  the  church  has  risen  from  the  flames, 
stretched  her  pinions  for  a  loftier  flight,  dashed  down  the  monuments 
which  her  foes  had  reared  to  perpetuate  her  overthrow  ;  and  gone  on 
from  conquest  to  conquest,  spreading  the  glorj  of  her  Master,  and 
promoting  the  happiness  of  men.  Nor  ought  it  to  escape  our  recol- 
lection, that  the  word  of  our  God  has  been  assailed  ;  but  even  heathens 
have  perceived  the  influence  of  the  sacred  writings  on  the  lives  of 
Christians.  And  where  the  same  spirit  prevails,  and  while  the  cause 
of  truth  is  dear  to  our  hearts,  the  cause  must  prevail.  The  sentiment 
in  the  text  may  be  illustrated  and  confirmed  by  noticing, 

2.  The  utter  failure  of  the  opposition  of  Infidelity.  The  manner  in 
which  infidelity  has  stood  in  the  way  of  the  truth  of  Christ,  is  highly 
interesting  in  itself.  It  has  varied  the  methods  of  its  assaults  ;  but,  in 
all,  it  has  only  illustrated  and  proved  the  excellency  of  the  dispensa- 
tion of  truth.  Sometimes  its  opposition  has  been  coarse,  rude  and 
vulgar.  Pens  deeply  dipped  in  filth  have  assailed  the  hoHness  of 
truth.  Low  jests,  loose  ribaldry,  obscene  wit,  have  been  hurled  at  the 
Christian's  serious  thoughts  of  God  —  of  Christ  —  of  death  —  of 
eternity.  The  sophist's  art,  also,  has  been  called  in  to  oppose  the 
system  of  truth  ;  and  that  system  by  which  the  martyrs  were  upheld 
in  death  ;  that  system  which  had  triumphed  over  the  attacks  of  Julian 
and  Porphyry  ;  that  system  which  had  stood  successfully  against  the 
fury  of  the  Caesars  ;  that  system  which  had  stood  the  test  of  eighteen 
centuries  ;  that  system  which  had  taught  so  many  thousands  how  to 
live  and  how  to  die  ;  —  that  system  has  been  assailed  by  the  fine-spun 
theory  of  a  Gibbon ;  and  a  finely- wrought  syllogism  was  supposed  to  be 
powerful  enough  to  destroy  it !  I  would  respect  the  man  that,  with 
fairness  and  candor,  attempted  to  oppose  the  system  of  revealed  truth; 
but  when  in  a  matter  so  serious,  —  a  matter  which  involves  the  ever- 
lasting interests  of  immortal  men,  —  1  am  met  with  a  jest  or  a  farce, 
and  a  quibble  is  converted  into  an  attack  upon  the  truth  ;  a  madman 
is  to  me  the  emblem  of  wisdom !  In  many  cases,  the  poison  has  been 
mixed  up  with  many  sweets  ;  the  serpent  lay  concealed  amidst  beaute- 
ous flowers ;  and  his  fiery  aspect,  his  forky  tongue,  and  his  deadly 
venom,  were  not  perceived  till  it  was  almost  too  late.  Yet,  in  reality, 
all  these  attacks  have  but  established  the  truth  which  they  were 
designed  to  overthrow.  Christianity  overthrown  !  My  brethren,  let 
us  not  fear  investigation  ;  let  us  not  fear  that  there  ever  can  come  a 
time  when  the  truth  of  God  can  fail.  Fail !  what  have  we  been  talking 
about  ?  as  if  the  truth  of  God  were  to  fall  before  its  foes  !  It  cannot 
be  ;  it  is  like  a  strong  fortress  on  the  summit  of  an  everlasting  rock ; 


HEAVENLY   THINGS   SUBSTANTIAL.  257 

some  of  her  friends,  through  carelessness,  have  been  entertaining 
suspicions  that  the  fortress  -will  be  taken  by  storm,  or  that  it  "will  fall 
down ;  and  they  have  brought  to  the  foot  of  the  rock  a  quantity  of 
straw  and  sand  to  support  it !  The  affected  knowledge  of  the  infidel, 
the  bitter  sarcasms,  and  the  haughty  sneers  of  the  worldling,  have 
swept  away,  as  with  a  mighty  gale,  the  straws  and  sands  at  the  base 
of  the  rock ;  but  what  has  become  of  the  fortress  ?  She  has  stood 
firm  amidst  all  the  storms ;  all  her  proportions  are  as  fair  as  ever  ;  her 
turrets  still  touch  the  skies ;  and  there  she  stands,  more  glorious  in  the 
eyes  of  her  friends,  more  terrific  to  the  gaze  of  her  foes  !  Let  her 
stand  by  herself,  and  she  will  stand  for  ever.  The  declaration  in  the 
text  may  be  illustrated,  by  adverting 

3.  To  the  blessed  and  delightful  spread  given  to  it  in  our  day.  "We 
cannot  contemplate,  without  considerable  emotion,  what  has  been  done 
in  the  days  in  which  we  Uve.  Since  we  first  saw  the  light  of  heaven, 
•what  a  wide  diffusion  has  been  given  to  the  word  of  God  !  In  regions 
shut  up  in  the  darkness  of  Atheism,  or  the  gloom  of  superstition  — 
over  many  such  a  land  has  the  gospel  of  our  God  spread  itself.  Some- 
times it  has  proceeded  silently,  and  at  other  times  visibly,  in  its  course. 
In  many  a  deep  savanna,  where  nothing  was  once  heard  but  the  war 
whoop  of  the  savage,  has  the  cheering  name  of  our  Emmanuel  been 
sung.  Over  many  a  plain  where  superstition  only  uttered  her  melan- 
choly moans,  has  Christian  prayer  and  Christian  praise  been  heard, 
conveying  delight  to  the  hearts  of  men,  and  joy  to  the  hosts  of  heaven. 
An  infidel  author,  of  base  and  execrable  memory,  undertook  what  he 
called  an  impartial  view  of  Scripture,  in  order  to  demonstrate  that  it 
was  not  what  it  professed  to  be  ;  and,  after  having  gone  through  the 
books  of  the  Old  Testament,  he  concludes  with  this  language  of  singu- 
lar arrogance  —  "I  have  now  gone  through  these  books  ;  gone  through 
them  as  a  woodman  would  go  through  a  wood,  with  an  axe,  clearing 
his  way  as  he  went.  I  have  cut  them  down,  and  here  they  are.  The 
priests,  if  they  please,  may  stick  them  in  the  ground  again ;  but  they 
will  never  grow.'' ^  It  is  now  nearly  forty  years  since  the  hand  that 
wrote  this  has  been  buried  in  the  dust ;  but  the  soul  that  indited  the 
sentence  has  gone  to  take  its  stand  at  the  tribunal  of  the  just  and 
righteous  Judge  ;  "  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth,"  who  will  assuredly 
"  do  right."  Whether  his  body  is  buried  in  America  or  in  England, 
I  know  not ;  but,  0  Lord,  gather  not  the  soul  of  thy  servant  with  the 
soul  of  the  wicked  and  profane !  But  let  us  return  to  the  time  when 
these  prophets  and  apostles  were  said  to  be  '^  cut  down."  Since  that 
period,  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  has  multipUed  these 
prophets  and  apostles  by  hundreds  and  by  thousands !  School  Socie- 
17 


258  THE    ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

ties  have  risen  up  to  put  it  in  the  power  of  hundreds  and  of  thousands 
to  read  the  prophets  and  apostles  thus  circulated !  Since  that  time 
also  originated  Missionary  Societies !  the  Church  Missionary  Society 
—  the  London  —  the  Baptists  —  our  own.  All  these  have  arisen,  and 
by  their  active  exertions  have  spread  those  prophets  and  apostles  wider 
still!  The  prophets  and  apostles  '^  cut  downf^^  No  such  thing! 
They  are  planted  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Mississippi ; 
and  there  they  are  to  be  seen,  vigorous  and  sti'ong.  "  Cut  down  "  the 
prophets  and  the  apostles  ?  No  such  thing !  They  have  been  planted 
upon  the  sun-burnt  shores  of  Africa,  and  there  they  afford  refreshment 
and  shelter  to  the  neglected  children  of  the  South.  The  prophets  and 
the  apostles  "  cut  down  ?  "  Nothing  of  the  kind.  They  have  taken 
root  on  the  populous  plains  of  Hindoostan,  and  there  they  are  diffusing 
their  corrective  influence  on  the  poisonous  systems  which  have  hitherto 
prevailed  in  those  populous  climes.  "  Cut  down "  the  prophets  and 
apostles  ?  No  such  thing.  They  are  planted  in  the  islands  that  speck 
the  bosom  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  ;  and  they  have  been  found  congenial 
to  the  clime  —  purifying  it  from  its  numerous  evils.  "  Cut  down  " 
the  prophets  and  the  apostles  !  Oh  no,  no  !  their  roots  have  struck 
deep  —  their  branches  have  spread  —  their  tops  touch  the  sky  ;  they 
afford  shelter  for  birds  of  every  wing ;  they  are  continually  yielding 
their  fruit,  and  "  their  leaves  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations.'" 
"  The  word  of  our  God  shall  stand  for  ever."  This  may  be  illustrated 
further,  if  we 

4.  Advert  to  the  fact  that  the  dispensation  of  truth  with  which  God 
has  blessed  the  world  is  also  the  dispensation  of  the  Spirit.  If  I  prove 
that  the  Bible  is  in  all  your  houses,  and  that  it  rests  on  your  tables  and 
your  shelves,  I  prove  but  little, —  a  mere  book  is  nothing.  But  this  is 
a)  book  of  the  Spirit — a  book  of  inquiry.  The  word  of  our  God  is  a  living 
word  :  it  is  not  only  a  dispensation  of  words,  addressed  to  the  under- 
standing and  will,  but  a  dispensation  of  the  Spirit  coming  to  the  heart 
of  man.  If  I  wanted  the  proof  of  this,  I  would  seek  it  among  yourselves. 
Is  there  in  this  large  and  interesting  assembly  a  man  who  ever  felt  the 
burden  of  a  guilty  conscience  ?  one  who  ever  mourned  over  the  evils  of 
his  past  life,  and  the  evil  dispositions  of  his  own  heart  ?  Was  it  not,  1 
ask,  by  some  truth  of  the  Spirit  of  your  God  ?  Was  it  not  by  some  one 
single  word,  which  entered  as  an  arrow  into  your  heart,  and  the  poison. 
of  which  drank  up  your  spirits  ?  It  was.  Or  is  there  in  this  assembly 
one  who  ever  knew  what  it  was  to  receive  the  tokens  of  the  forgiving 
love  of  God  ?  one  who  can  come  nigh  unto  his  throne  —  who  can  call 
him  Father  by  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  one  who  ever  felt  the  peace,  the  hope, 
the  joy,  the  love,  of  the  gospel  springing  up  in  the  soul  ?     I  ask,  Was 


HEAVENLY    THINGS    SUBSTANTIAL.  259 

it  not  some  dear,  soul-afflicting  word  of  our  God  —  some  gracious 
promise  applied  by  the  Spirit, —  that  brought  thee  into  this  happy 
state  ?  Is  there  here  a  man  who  can  resist  temptation  —  who  can 
guard  the  door  of  his  lips  and  his  heart —  who,  in  adversity,  can  rejoice 
—  who,  in  a  dark  and  cloudy  day,  can  put  his  trust  in  his  Father  and 
his  God  ?  Was  it  not,  I  ask,  because  the  Avord  of  our  God  was  applied 
by  the  Spirit  to  the  heart,  carrying  joy  and  gladness  with  it  ? 

I  am  glad,  exceedingly  glad,  that  "  the  word  of  our  Grod  shall  stand 
for  everP  I  find  myself  a  poor  worm  of  the  earth,  exposed  to  a 
thousand  temptations  and  disasters  —  exposed  to  a  thousand  circum- 
stances of  trial  and  danger,  over  wliich  I  have  no  control ;  I  find  that 
I  am  one  of  a  multitudinous  race  of  men  ;  I  find  that  this  land  in  which 
I  dwell  is  but  a  speck  on  the  face  of  the  globe  ;  I  find  that  this  globe 
is  but  one  in  a  system,  of  which  it  makes  but  a  very  small  part ;  I  find 
that  system  to  be  one  of  innumerable  millions,  scattered  over  the 
immeasurable  regions  of  space.  My  heart,  mv  poor  heart,  misgives 
me  !  I  fear  that  I  am  lost  amidst  these  myriads  of  beings  —  that  it  is 
not  possible  for  such  a  poor  worm  as  I  am  to  be  remembered  by  the  Lord 
of  all!  But  '•''the  word  of  our  God  shall  stand  for  ever.''^  That 
word  declares  "  the  eyes  of  the  Lord  are  over  the  righteous,  and  his 
ears  are  open  to  their  cry."  While  he  made  the  universe,  and  governs 
it  too,  he  is  not  unmindful  of  the  work  of  his  hands.  "  Not  a  sparrow 
falls  to  the  ground  without  his  notice.  "  "  The  very  hairs  of  my  head 
are  all  numbered." 

I  perceive  that  life's  day  is  rapidly  hastening  to  a  close.  "  The  place 
that  knows  me  now,  will  shortly  know  me  no  more."  I  feel  that  I  have 
an  intelligent  thinking  spirit  within  me  ;  but  whether  it  will  return  to 
the  dust  when  my  body  dies,  my  reason  cannot  tell.  But  "  the  word 
of  our  Cfod  shall  stand  for  ever."  That  word  assures  me  that  the 
souls  of  Abraham  and  Lazarus  are  in  the  abodes  of  the  faithful  ;  that 
the  souls  of  the  faithful  shall  live  for  ever. 

I  am  going  down  to  the  dust !  0  king  of  terrors,  I  am  not  insen- 
sible of  thy  approach  !  The  gloomy  terrors  of  the  grave  are  before  me  1 
I  must  go  down  to  "  the  house  appointed  for  all  living  !  "  But  let  me 
not  be  dismayed ;  the  word  of  God  assures  me,  —  and  "  the  word  of 
our  Crod  shall  stand  for  ever,"  — that  all  who  are  in  the  graves  shall 
live  again.  "  The  hour  is  coming,  in  which  all  that  are  in  the  graves 
shall  hear  his  voice,  and  shall  come  forth  !  "  "  Them  that  sleep  with 
Jesus  will  God  bring  with  him."  And  in  the  day  when  God  shall 
come  in  glory,  "  he  shall  change  my  vile  body,  and  fashion  it  like  unto 
his  own  glorious  body,  according  to  the  working  whereby  he  is  able  to 
subdue  all  things  unto  himself." 


260  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

0,  I  am  glad  that  "  the  word  of  our  Crod  shall  stand  for  ever^  I 
feel  that  I  have  been  a  sinner !  The  proudest  infidel  feels  it.  He  felt 
it,  who  said,  "  I  hate  every  body ;  I  believe  myself  to  be  about  the 
best  of  men  ;  and  I  know  how  bad  I  am  !  "  Yes  ;  and  as  a  Christian, 
with  clearer  hght,  I  know  that  I  have  been  a  sinner.  Yet  let  me  not 
sink  into  despair  !  Let  me  not  abandon  myself  to  hopeless  wretched- 
ness !  The  word  of  God  assures  me, —  and  "  ^7te  ivord  of  our  Crod 
shall  stand  for  ever,''^  —  "  If  any  man  sin,  we  have  an  advocate  with 
the  Father,  Jesus  Christ  the  righteous  ;  and  he  is  the  propitiation  for 
our  sins ;  and  not  for  ours  onl}^,  but  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world." 
"  Jesus  Christ  by  the  grace  of  God  tasked  death  for  every  man  ; " 
"  If  we  confess  our  sins,  he  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins, 
and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness." 


SERMON  XXII. 

THE  TRANSLATION   OF   ELIJAH   COMPARED   WITH  THE 
DEATH -BED    OF   ELISHA. 

BY  REV.  HENRY  MELVILL,  D.  D. 

"  Now  Elisha  was  fallen  sick  of  his  sickness  whereof  he  died.  And  Joash,  the  king  of 
Israel,  came  down  unto  him,  and  wept  over  his  face,  and  said,  0  my  father,  my  father,  the 
chariot  of  Israel,  and  the  horsemen  thereof."  —  2  Kikgs  xiii.  14. 

Elisha,  as  you  will  remember,  succeeded  Elijah  in  the  prophetical 
office,  having  been  with  him  at  the  moment  of  his  being  taken  up  into 
heaven,  and  having  caught  the  mantle  which  fell  from  him,  as  he  thus 
ascended  unto  God.  Elijah  and  Elisha  were  both  conspicuous  by  the 
power  of  working  miracles,  and  by  their  efforts  at  withstanding  idolatry 
and  restoring  throughout  Israel  the  pure  worship  of  God.  It  ma}''  not 
be  altogether  our  part  to  institute  a  comparison  between  men  so 
eminently  endowed,  or  to  pronounce  as  to  one  being  more  illustrious 
than  the  other ;  yet  there  is  more  recorded  of  Elisha  than  of  Elijali. 
It  would  appear  from  the  history  of  EUsha,  that  he  wrought  twice  as 
many  miracles  as  Elijah ;  as  though  the  parting  request-had  been  liter- 
ally complied  with,  and  a  double  portion  of  the  spirit  of  the  ascending 
prophet  had  fallen  on  his  successor.  Neither  is  there  anything  related 
of  Elisha,  m  which  he  would  seem  to  have  been  blameworthy  ;  and  this 


ELIJAH   AND   ELISHA.  261 

is  more  than  can  be  said  of  Elijah  ;  for  it  would  certainly  seem  that 
Elijah,  after  the  memorable  defeat  of  the  prophets  of  Baal,  abandoned 
his  post  upon  a  sudden  fit  of  despondency,  fleeing  into  the  wilderness 
to  avoid  the  threatened  vengeance  of  Jezebel ;  when,  by  remaining  to 
follow  up  the  impression  which  had  been  made,  he  might  have  succeeded, 
to  a  great  degree,  in  reclaiming  the  people  of  Israel  from  their  apos- 
tasy. We  have  before  had  occasion  to  show  you  that  the  manifestation 
upon  Horeb,  when  the  Lord  was  not  found  in  the  wind,  the  earthquake, 
or  the  fire,  but  discovered  himself  in  and  through  the  "  still  small 
voice,"  appears  to  have  been  intended  as  a  sort  of  parable  ;  the  truths 
conveyed  being  such  as  were  fitted  to  encourage  the  prophet  to  perse- 
verance ^n  the  course  which  he  had  taken,  and  to  admonish  him  of 
punishment,  if  he  acted  differently  in  his  ofiice.  There  is  nothing  of 
a  like  kind  recorded  of  Elisha.  Doubtless  he  too  had  infirmities,  and 
fell  into  sins  ;  for  you  cannot  need  proof  that  a  man  is  not  to  be 
accounted  faultless,  because  only  his  excellencies  are  told  us  in  the 
Bible.  But,  so  far  as  the  scriptural  account  goes,  it  would  be  diflScult 
to  conceal  that  Elisha  came  nearer  perfection  than  Elijah  ;  that  not 
only  was  he  more  distinguished  for  the  number  of  his  miracles,  but  that 
he  made  greater  progress  in  the  unreserved  consecration  of  himself  to 
God.  There  is,  moreover,  reason  for  thinking  that  Elisha  was  more 
successful  than  Elijah  had  been  in  reclaiming  the  Israelites  from  the 
worship  of  Baal.  You  will  recollect  that  in  his  fit  of  despondency, 
Elijah  had  complained  that  he  stood  quite  alone,  that  there  was  none 
but  himself  to  take  the  side  of  the  Lord.  He  was  utterly  wrong  in 
this  opinion  ;  for  God  said,  "  Yet  have  I  left  me  seven  thousand  in 
Israel,  all  the  knees  which  have  not  bowed  unto  Baal,  and  every  mouth 
which  hath  not  kissed  him."  But  seven  thousand  was  a  very  small 
remnant ;  idolatry  must  still  have  had  a  vast  preponderance  on  i'.s  side, 
if  seven  thousand  were  all  the  worshippers  of  Jehovah.  But  you  find 
that  when  Jehu,  who  was  raised  up  twelve  years  after,  proceeded  by  a 
sort  of  plot  to  the  destroying  the  idolaters  among  his  people,  he  was 
able  to  entice  them  into  one  house  or  temple ;  so  that  their  number 
must  have  differed  greatly  from  what  it  had  been  a  few  years  before. 
We  know,  also,  that  Elisha  continued  his  labors  for  at  least  forty-five 
years  after  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Jehu  ;  and  though  his  name 
is  never  once  mentioned  throughout  this  long  period,  we  may  justly 
suppose  that  he  was  as  zealous  as  before,  and  perhaps  not  less  'success- 
ful, in  turning  away  his  countrymen  from  idolatry.  He  did  not,  indeed, 
prevail  to  the  reclaiming  their  hearts  as  a  nation  unto  the  Lord,  from 
whom  they  had  revolted ;  but  he  would  seem  to  have  been  far  more 
instrumental  than  Elijah  to  the  conversion  of   individuals.     God  so 


262  THE    ENGLISH    PULPIT. 

honored  his  protracted  labors,  that  multitudes  far  outnumbering,  in  all 
probability,  the  seven  thousand  in  the  days  of  Elijah,  were  either 
secretly  or  openly  in  the  ranks  of  those  who  preferred  Jehovah  to  Baal. 
And  thus  eminent  as  were  both  these  servants  of  the  Lord,  it  were 
almost  difficult  not  to  regard  Ehsha  as  the  more  eminent  of  the  two, 
and  the  more  likely  to  have  been  singled  out  for  special  marks  of  the 
favor  of  Heaven.  Let  us  put  it  to  you  to  decide,  from  what  is  related 
of  the  two,  which  might  be  the  more  expected  to  receive  at  God's  hands 
extraordinary  tokens  of  acceptance  ;  and  it  is  only  supposing  that  you  ■ 
will  decide  by  the  common  rules  which  must  regulate  human  judgments, 
if,  considering  the  superior  number  of  recorded  miracles,  and  that  also 
of  reclaimed  idolaters,  we  conclude,  that  you  will  look  to  find  in  the 
history  of  Elisha,  rather  than  in  that  of  Elijah,  especial  evidence  that 
the  prophet  had  found  acceptance  in  the  eyes  of  the  Lord. 

But  now  let  us  pass  from  our  own  conjectures  or  suppositions,  to  the 
actual  facts  in  the  case.  We  have  two  very  different  scenes  to  bring 
before  you.  We  take  you  first  to  the  brink  of  the  Jordan,  where  there 
is  about  to  occur  one  of  the  most  marvellous  events  that  ever  befel  a 
being  of  our  race.  There  are  two  prophets  conversing  together  on  the 
bank  of  the  river.  Suddenly,  whilst  they  are  yet  talking,  lo !  a  chariot 
of  fire,  drawn  by  horses  of  fire,  descends  from  heaven  —  equipage  such 
as,  perhaps,  mortal  eye  had  never  gazed  upon  before ;  a  scene  too 
strangel}'  spiritual  for  mortal  mind  to  contemplate.  Yet  it  is  for  a  man, 
for  one  of  those  two  seers,  that  tliis  celestial  equipage  is  sent,  that 
comes  down  in  its  awful  effulgence  to  convey  to  the  upper  world,  without 
allowing  him  to  pass  through  the  scene  of  death,  the  "elder  of  the 
proj)hets  on  whom  we  have  gazed.  Oh,  wondrously  favored  man  ! 
He  is  not,  indeed,  the  first  to  whom  has  been  awarded  exemption  from 
the  sentence  provoked  by  disobedience.  La  an  earlier  dispensation, 
Enoch  was  translated  so  as  not  to  see  death  ;  although  we  know  not  if 
it  were  under  the  same  circumstances  of  visible  pomp,  that  this  seventh 
from  Adam  exchanged  earth  for  heaven.  But  if  the  prophet  did  not 
first  receive  this  extraordinary  distinction,  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  how 
one  of  our  race  could  have  been  signally  honored.  We  must  return 
from  the  sight  penetrated  with  amazement,  and  ready  with  our  acknowl- 
edgment, that  God  hath  given  him  such  a  token  of  his  favor  and 
acceptance,  as  —  with  reverence  be  it  said  —  even  God  himself  might 
hardly  surpass. 

But  now  we  take  you  to  a  wholly  dififerent  scene.  An  emaciated  old 
man  is  before  us,  stretched  on  his  bed,  patiently  awaiting  death,  which, 
to  judge  from  the  too  evident  signs  of  age  and  infirmity,  cannot  be  far 
distant.     There  are  no  indications  here  of  the  equipage  of  flame : 


ELIJAH    AND    ELISHA.  263 

thougli  something  of  unearthly  fire  Ughts  up  the  old  man's  eye,  as  he 
is  led  to  predict  his  country's  victory  over  the  Assyrians.  It  is  the 
prophet  on  whom  fell  the  mantle  of  the  ascending  seer,  who  lies  before 
us  in  all  the  feebleness  of  approaching  dissolution.  Years  after  years 
have  passed,  since  that  wondrous  event  at  the  brink  of  the  Jordan ; 
and  now  he  who  was  appointed  in  the  stead  of  hiniAvho  went  up  in  the 
chariot  of  fire,  is  about  to  follow  him  to  the  invisible  world,  that  he,  too, 
may  rest  from  his  toils.  But  what  a  difierence  is  there  in  the  manner 
and  circumstances  of  the  departure !  Is  it  possible  even  to  imagine  a 
greater  contrast  ?  In  the  one  case,  there  is  a  suspension  of  all  the 
ordinary  laws.  There  is  no  death,  no  wasting  and  wearing  down  of 
the  faculties  ;  in  a  moment,  and  with  the  utmost  splendor  of  mii'acle, 
the  servant  of  the  Lord  passes,  body  and  soul,  into  heavenly  places,  as 
though  he  had  not  been  a  child  of  Adam,  or  as  though  Adam  had  not 
tasted  of  the  fatal  fruit.  In  the  other  case,  not  only  are  the  ordinary 
laws  not  suspended,  they  seem  to  be  carried  into  force  with  every 
distressing  accompaniment.  There  is  continued  and  pining  sickness  ; 
there  is  the  gradual  decay  of  strength ;  there  is  that  hard  and  heavy 
lot,  when  "  the  earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle  "  is  taken  down  bit  by 
bit,  and  the  most  patient  are  sorely  exercised  by  the  slowness  of  the 
process.  Ah !  what  a  contrast  between  the  chariot  of  fire,  and  the 
decrepitude  of  old  age ;  between  the  horses  of  fire,  and  the  pains  of 
corroding  disease.  And  which,  then,  is  the  prophet  who  ascended  so 
marvellously  to  heaven,  and  which  the  prophet  who  was  to  go  hence 
with  so  lingering  a  step  ?  You  have  already  looked  at  the  recorded 
actioi\s  of  the  two,  and,  feeling  that  Elisha  seems  to  have  exceeded 
Elijah  in  the  wonders  which  lie  wrought,  and  the  converts  which  he 
made,  you  expect  that  if  God  have  a  signal  mark  of  favor  to  bestow, 
it  Avill  be  given  to  him  who  seems  to  have  done  the  most  to  advance  the 
cause  of  truth.  In  other  words,  had  we  merely  given  you  the  regis- 
tered actions  of  the  two,  and  then  placed  before  you,  without  naming 
the  parties,  the  two  departures  into  the  invisible  world,  and  asked  you 
to  tell  us  which  you  should  conclude  to  be  that  of  Elijah,  and  which 
chat  of  Elisha,  there  is  not,  perhaps,  one  of  you  who  would  have 
assigned  to  Elijah  the  equipage  of  flame,  and  to  Elisha  the  sIoav  process 
of  decay.  Whereas,  such  poor  judges  are  men  of  the  designs  and 
dealings  of  God,  that  it  was  for  Elijah  that  the  chariot  of  fire  and  the 
horses  of  fire  swept  down  from  the  firmament,  and  it  is  of  Elisha  that 
it  is  said,  in  the  touching  language  of  the  text,  that  he  was  "  fallen  sick 
of  his  sickness  whereof  he  died." 

Now  we  do  not  mean,  by  thus  comparing  the  recorded  action  of 
Elijah  and  Elisha,  to  decide  that  the  one  prophet  was  more  excellent 


264  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

than  tlie  other  ;  and  far  less  do  we  mean,  by  comparing  the  circumstan- 
ces of  their  departure  out  of  life,  to  intimate  that  God's  deahngs  with 
these  his  servants  were  not  in  accordance  with  their  several  characters. 
We  are  speaking  only  of  what  may  be  called  the  appearances  of  the 
case,  and  of  the  conclusions  at  which,  arguing  merely  from  those 
appearances,  we  should  be  likely  to  arrive.  And  certainly  we  hardly 
know  a  more  remarkable  contrast,  nor  one  more  fitted  to  engage  a 
thoughtful  mind,  than  that  between  the  translation  of  Elijah,  and  the 
sickness  of  Elisha.  Though  there  is  not  much  told  us  of  the  sickness 
of  Elisha,  you  can  hardly  fail  to  infer,  from  the  language  of  our  text, 
that  it  was  a  lingering  sickness.  "  Elisha  was  fallen  sick  of  his  sick- 
ness whereof  he  died."  Evidently  he  did  not  die  suddenly.  He  was 
visited  on  his  sick  bed  by  Joash,  the  king  of  Israel,  and  we  have  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  Joash  was  a  man  likely  to  be  forward  in  showing 
respect  for  the  servant  of  God.  And  it  strikes  us  as  a  pathetic  circum- 
stance, so  far  as  Elisha  himself  was  concerned,  that  Joash,  in  visiting 
the  dying  prophet,  addressed  him  with  the  words,  "  0  my  father,  my 
father,  the  chariot  of  Israel,  and  the  horsemen  thereof."  For  these 
were  the  very  words  which  Elisha  had  uttered,  when  Elijah  was  parted 
from  him,  and  went  up  in  a  whirlwind  into  heaven.  "  Elisha  saw  it, 
and  he  cried.  My  father,  my  father,  the  chariot  of  Israel,  and  the 
horsemen  thereof."  Now  must  not  this  quotation  of  his  own  words 
have  most  powerfully  reminded  Elisha  of  the  translation  of  Elijah, 
fixing  on  him  the  remembrance  of  the  occasion  on  which  they  had  been 
used  by  himself,  and  suggesting  the  difference  between  it  and  the 
occasion  on  which  they  Avere  now  being  used  to  himself  ?  There  is  no 
reason  to  suppose  that  Joash  purposely  used  the  same  words  ;  for  the 
expression  may  have  been  a  proverbial  one,  and  frequently  employed 
on  the  occasion  of  the  falling  of  a  great  leader.  But  as  Elisha  lay 
there  in  his  old  age,  and  a  king  bent  over  him  and  breathed  the  words, 
"  My  father,  my  father,  the  chariot  of  Israel,  and  the  horsemen  thereof," 
it  would  indeed  be  difficult  to  believe  that  the  mind  of  the  dying  prophet 
did  not  recall  the  wondrous  scene  on  the  brink  of  the  Jordan,  that  there 
did  not  pass  before  him  the  chariot  of  fire  and  the  horses  of  fire,  and 
that  he  did  not  for  a  moment,  though  not  in  a  complaining,  yet  in  an 
inquiring  spirit,  revolve  the  diflference  between  Elijah's  departure  and 
his  OAvn.  And,  whatever  may  have  been  the  feelings  of  Elisha  himself, 
there  is,  as  we  have  said,  much  to  think  of,  and  much  to  learn,  if  we 
simply  set  before  us  Elijah  and  Elisha  as  at  least  equally  eminent  in 
the  service  of  God,  and  then  behold  the  one  translated  without  seeing 
death,  whilst  the  other  is  left  to  all  the  lingering  processes  of  old  age 
and  decay.     It  is  a  sort  of  contrast  which  is  still  often  seen,  if  not 


ELIJAU  AND   ELISHA.  265 

definitely  traced,  yet  sufficiently  marked  to  attract  attention  and  to 
excite  wonder.  For  there  is  a  vast  apparent  difference  between  God's 
dealings  with  his  servants,  with  those  who,  according  to  their  opportu- 
nities, seem  to  be  equally  earnest  in  the  great  duties  of  obedience  and 
faith.  You  shall  observe  that  one  is  suddenly  arrested  in  the  midst  of 
a  high  career  of  usefulness ;  that,  without  being  worn  out  by  age,  or 
worn  down  by  protracted  disease,  he  is  quickly,  and  with  every  demon- 
stration of  victory  and  of  triumph,  borne  away  from  the  earth  to  the 
presence  of  God.  So  visibly,  we  might  almost  say,  does  the  Christian 
pass  into  the  heavenly  abode,  that  you  can  only  liken  the  removal  to 
that  of  Elijah,  and  survivors  Avill  speak  of  the  chariot  of  fire  and  the 
horses  of  fire,  as  though,  in  burning  pomp,  the  equipage  had  been  seen 
in  the  chamber  of  sickness.  But  you  shall  observe  that  another, 
eminent  also  as  a  servant  of  God,  is  left  to  become  infirm  and  decrepit, 
to  be  broken  up  gradually  through  the  inroads  of  age,  or  consumed  by 
pining  sickness,  so  that  for  months,  and  perhaps  even  years,  he  is 
confined  to  his  room,  and  incapacitated  for  every  kind  of  active  employ- 
ment. And  friends  cannot  here  speak  of  the  translation  of  Elijah. 
There  is  nothing  in  the  circumstances  of  this  slow  and  toilsome  departure, 
Avhieh  can  be  brought  into  the  remotest  comparison  with  the  rapture  of  him 
who  went  up  in  the  whirlwind.  The  original  sentence  has  here  taken 
effect  in  all  its  severity,  so  far  as  the  body  is  concerned,  and  though  bright 
thoughts  may  be  shedding  themselves  through  the  mind,  and  the  failing 
spirit  sustahi  itself  with  a  hope  which  is  "  full  of  immortality,"  the  taking 
down  of  "  the  earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle  "  is  but  the  continued 
and  mournful  exhibition  of  the  humiliating  truth,  "  Dust  thou  art,  and 
unto  dust  thou  shalt  return."  Yes,  but  because  this  case  of  departure 
out  of  life  is  so  widely  different  from  the  former,  is  there  anything  to 
wonder  at,  much  more  is  there  anything  to  murmur  at  ?  Are  we  to 
infer,  are  we  for  a  moment  to  suspect,  that  he  who  is  left  to  linger, 
must  be  less  prepared  to  die  or  less  approved  of  God,  than  one  who 
goes  hence  as  though  borne  upon  angels*  wings  ?  Nay,  this  were 
indeed  an  unwarranted  inference  or  an  injurious  suspicion.  Who  will 
presume  to  think  that  Elisha  was  less  righteous  than  Elijah,  that  he 
had  been  less  obedient  to  God,  or  had  done  less  in  his  service  ?  Scrip- 
ture, as  we  have  seen,  seems  carefully  to  set  itself  against  any  such 
opinion,  by  enumerating  more  of  the  actions  and  successes  of  Elisha 
than  of  Elijah  ;  and  yet  Elisha  died  the  lingering  death,  while  Elijah 
left  the  earth  in  the  chariot  of  fire.  Blessed  be  God  that  both  cases 
are  recorded.  I  can  now  go  to  the  sick  room,  where  a  Christian,  on 
whom  the  summons  of  departure  hence  has  come  unexpectedly,  whilst 
yet  he  was  pursuing  a  course  of  undiminished  usefulness,  is  visibly 


266  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

trampling  upon  death,  and  to  whose  eyes  it  may  be  said  that  heaven  is 
ah'cady  opened,  in  such  vigor  is  that  faith  which  is  "  the  substance  of 
thiitgs  hoped  for,  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen."  I  can  tell  friends 
and  relatives  that  mourning  should  be  lost  in  thankfulness.  Does  not 
the  departure  of  Elisha  remind  them  of  the  rapture  of  Elijah  ;  and 
would  they  shed  tears  over  the  chariot  of  fire  ?  But  I  can  pass  then 
to  another  sick  room,  where  an  aged  Christian  is  lingering  weariedlj 
through  days  of  pain  and  nights  of  watching.  Oh !  what  a  contrast 
is  here.  There  is,  perhaps,  dejection.  It  is  a  sore  exercise  of  patience, 
both  to  the  sufferer  himself,  and  to  those  who  are  ministering  to  him, 
that  his  removal  from  amongst  the  living  is  by  a  slow  process  ;  and 
perhaps  the  feeling  is,  that  he  cannot  be  ready  for  his  removal,  that 
notwithstanding  his  long  life  of  piety,  corruption  must  have  had  a  more 
than  commonly  strong  hold  upon  him,  else  would  there  never  have  been 
so  protracted  a  dismissal.  He  possibly  knows  that  I  have  just  left  the 
chamber  Avhere  death  is  experiencing  so  signal  a  defeat,  and  it  does 
but  give  him  a  melancholy  view  of  his  own  case,  that  it  should  thus  be 
forced  into  contrast  with  one  so  glorious  and  triumphant.  "  Ay,"  he 
will  saj^  "  you  do  not  find  here  the  chariot  of  fire  and  the  horses  of 
fire.  You  have  been  with  Elijah  on  the  border  of  Jordan,  but  there  is 
no  Elijah  here,  no  saint  so  ripe  for  immortality,  that  angels  stand  ready 
with  expanded  wings  to  bear  him  to  the  mansions  above.  Alas  !  for 
the  depraved  heart  which  takes  so  much  longer  in  being  purified. 
Alas  !  for  that  desperate  sinfulness  which  is  not  to  be  eradicated,  but 
by  extraordinary  and  lingering  corrections."  "  Nay,  my  brother,"  is 
the  fitting  reply,  "  write  not  bitter  things  against  thyself,  as  if 
protracted  sickness  and  debility  were  necessarily  any  evidence  of  an 
unfitness  to  die,  or  of  a  more  than  common  share  of  evil  to  be  mastered 
within.  True,  I  have  just  left  the  river's  brink  on  which  Elijah  stands, 
but  I  have  come  to  the  bed  on  which  Elisha  lies,  and  Scripture  draws 
no  injurious  comparison  between  Elijah  and  Elisha.  If  it  furnish 
material  for  a  comparison  at  all,  the  preference  seems  to  lie  with  the 
prophet  who  lingered  on  the  bed,  and  not  with  him  who  went  up  in  the 
whirlwind.  Then  be  of  good  cheer.  The  old  infirm  man  who  is  left 
till  he  might  almost  think  himself  forgotten,  may  be  as  dear  to  God, 
ay,  and  as  fit  for  his  presence,  a^  the  younger  who  seems  about  to  step 
visibly  into  the  chariot  of  fire.  The  flaming  equipage  came  down  for 
Elijah  ;  Elisha  remained  to  be  worn  away  by  toil.  "  Then  he  fell  sick 
of  the  sickness  whereof  he  died  ; "  but  the  same  words,  and  with  the 
same  truth,  attended  each  prophet  on  his  departing  from  the  earth, 
"  My  father,  my  father,  the  chariot  of  Israel  and  the  horsemen  thereof." 
Now  there  is  one  point  involved  in  these  general  statements,  on  which 


ELIJAH    AND    ELISIIA.  267 

we  would  speak  to  you  with  somewhat  greater  distinctness.  It  seems 
often,  as  we  have  hinted,  to  excite  surprise,  both  in  the  sufferer  himself 
and  in  others,  when  a  Christian  who  has  long  been  eminent  for  piety, 
and  whose  faith  has  been  consjiicuous  in  his  works,  lingers  for  months, 
perhaps  even  years,  in  weai'isome  sickness,  as  though,  notwithstanding 
the  preparations  of  a  righteous  life,  he  needed  protracted  trial  to  fit 
him  for  the  presence  of  God.  The  secret  supposition  is,  that  a  Chris- 
tian ought  to  die  as  soon  as  he  is  quite  ready  to  die,  and  that,  conse- 
quently, if  there  be  lengthened  sickness,  so  that  a  man  dies  by  inches, 
it  must  be  inferred  that  he  requires  a  more  than  ordinary  disciphne, 
corruption  having  been  stronger  in  him  than  in  most,  and  therefore  not 
to  be  subdued,  but  by  processes  more  than  usually  protracted  and 
severe.  But,  now,  what  is  precisely  meant  by  a  Christian  being  ready 
to  die  ?  Is  it  merely  meant  that  he  is  in  such  a  state  that,  were  he  to 
die,  he  would  go  to  heaven  ?  Then,  surely,  he  must  be  in  that  state, 
in  the  majority  of  cases,  long  before  he  actually  dies.  At  least,  there 
must  be  as  good  reason  for  believing  him  in  that  state  long  before  death, 
as  at  the  moment  of  death ;  whenever  death  comes  to  a  sincere  believer  in 
Christ,  if  it  surprise  him  not  in  unrcpented  sin,  we  have  the  same  reason 
for  a  meek  though  a  confident  hope  that  he  had  been  removed  home  to 
that  "  rest  Avhich  remaineth  for  the  peo2:)le  of  God."  And,  as  to  look- 
ing on  long  sickness  as  that  which  is  gradually  to  purify  the  soul,  the 
dismissal  of  that  soul  from  the  body  being  deferred  till  a  certain  point 
of  purification  has  been  reached,  and  taking  place  immediately  on  that 
point  being  gained,  Avhy  this  is  really  little  better  than  the  Papal 
doctrine  of  purgatory,  only  that  the  Protestant  puts  it  before  death, 
and  the  Romanist  after.  No  doubt  sickness,  like  any  other  trial,  is 
instrumental,  under  God,  to  the  ends  of  moral  discipline,  to  the  exer- 
cising and  perfecting  of  the  various  graces  of  the  Christian.  But  am 
I  to  suppose  that  the  Christian  who  is  confined  for  weeks  or  months  to 
his  bed  or  his  room,  would  not  have  gone  to  heaven  had  he  died  without 
this  tedious  suffering;  that  this  tedious  sufiering  is  appointed  him, 
because  there  is  so  much  of  which  to  cleanse  and  disburden  his 
conscienc.e,  so  much  more  than  in  numbers  who  pass  without  such  sore 
trial  into  the  invisible  world  ?  God  forbid  that  we  should  maintain  a 
supposition  so  unjustifiable  and  so  uncharitable.  Shall  I  presume  to 
think  that  Elisha  was  not  fit  to  die  when  Elijah  was  translated,  or  that 
the  "  sickness  whereof  he  died,"  was  appointed  him  as  necessary  to 
his  being  fitted  for  death  ?  Not  so.  There  is,  we  believe,  altogether 
a  mistake  in  the  view  commonly  taken  of  old  age  and  lingering  illness. 
Because  a  man  is  confined  to  his  room  or  his  bed,  the  idea  seems  to  be 
that  he  is  altogether  useless  ;  that,  in  the  ordinary  phrase,  he  is  quite 


268  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

laid  by,  as  though  he  had  no  duties  to  perform,  when  he  could  no 
longer  perform  those  of  more  active  life.  Was  there  ever  a  greater 
mistake  ?  The  sick  room,  the  sick  bed,  has  its  special,  its  appropriate 
duties,  duties  to  the  full  as  difficult,  as  honorable,  as  remunerating,  as 
any  which  devolve  upon  the  Christian  whilst  yet  in  his  unbroken 
strength.  They  are  not  precisely  the  same  duties  as  belong  to  the 
man  in  health ;  but  they  differ  only  by  such  degrees  as  change  of 
circumstances  and  condition  will  always  produce.  The  patience  which 
he  has  to  cultivate,  the  resignation  which  he  has  to  exhibit,  the  faith 
which  he  has  to  exercise,  the  example  which  he  has  to  set,  —  Oh  !  talk 
not  of  a  sick  man  as  a  man  laid  by.  Harder  deeds,  ay,  and  it  may  be 
deeds  of  more  extensive  usefulness,  are  required  from  him  who  lingers 
on  the  couch,  than  from  many  a  leader  in  the  highest  and  the  most 
laborious  of  Christian  undertakings.  Is  there  any  cause  for  surprise, 
if  the  Christian  be  left  to  hnger  long  in  sickness,  to  wear  away  tedious 
months  in  racking  pain  or  slow  decay?  Nay,  as  good  cause  would 
there  be  for  surprise,  that  a  Christian  were  not  sooner  removed  from 
active  duties,  that  strength  is  continued  to  him  year  after  year,  for  the 
particular  work  assigned  him  by  God.  Why  should  it  be  more  surpri- 
sing that  God  keeps  one  man  for  a  long  time  to  the  duties  of  the  sick 
room,  than  that  he  keeps  another  man  for  a  long  time  to  the  duties  of 
public  life  ?  Each  class  of  duties  contributes  to  the  glory  of  God  and 
the  welfare  of  man ;  to  each  class  is  annexed  high  recompense,  and  to 
each  appertains  no  ordinary  usefulness.  Our  portion  in  eternity  will 
be  determined  by  the  progress  here  made  in  holiness  ;  and  is  not  sick- 
ness, by  the  peculiar  nature  of  its  duties,  even  more  fitted  than  health 
for  maturing  us  in  hoUness  ?  Shall  we,  then,  wonder  if  one  whom  God 
loves  linger  long  in  sickness,  when  every  moment  this  siclmess  may  be 
fitting  him  for  a  brighter  crown  above  ?  I  do  not  speak  of  mere  fitness 
to  enter  heaven.  Heaven  presents  variety  of  portion,  as  "  one  star 
differeth  from  another  star  in  glory  ;  "  and  if  superior  holiness  prepare 
for  superior  blessedness,  why  think  it  stranger  that  God  should  leave 
one  of  his  servants  to  grow  holier  in  sickness,  than  that  he  should  leave 
another  to  grow  holier  in  health,  which,  of  the  two,  is  generally  less 
congenial  with  inward  piety  and  devotedness.  Besides,  it  is  they  who 
"  turn  many  to  righteousness,"  that  are  to  "  shine  as  the  stars  of  the 
firmament."  And  is  there  no  sermon  from  a  sick  bed  ?  Has  the  sick 
man  nothing  to  do  with  publishing  and  adorning  the  gospel  ?  Nay,  I 
think  that  an  awful,  a  perilous  trust,  is  committed  to  the  sick  Christian. 
Friends,  children,  neighbors,  the  Church  at  large,  look  to  him  for  some 
practical  exhibition  of  the  worth  of  Christianity.  If  he  be  fretful,  or 
irritable,  or  full  of  doubts  and  fears,  they  will  say,  "  Is  this  all  that  the 


ELIJAH   AND   ELISHA.  269 

gospel  can  do  for  man  in  a  season  of  extremity  ?  "  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  he  be  meek  and  resigned,  and  able  to  testify  to  God's  faithfulness 
to  his  word,  they  will  be  taught,  and  nothing  teaches  like  example,  that 
Christianity  can  make  good  its  pretensions,  that  it  is  a  sustaining, 
elevating,  death-conquering  religion.  And  who  shall  calculate  what 
may  be  wrought  through  such  practical  exhibitions  of  the  power  and 
the  preciousness  of  the  gospel  ?  I,  for  one,  will  not  dare  to  affirm  that 
more  is  done  towards  converting  the  careless,  confirming  the  wavering, 
or  comforting  the  dying,  by  the  bold  champion  who  labors  publicly  at 
making  known  Christianity,  than  by  the  worn  down  invalid,  who 
preaches  to  a  household  or  a  neighborhood  by  unruffled  patience,  and 
simple,  unquestioning  dependence  upon  God.  I,  for  one,  can  believe 
that  he  who  dies  a  death  of  triumph,  passing  almost  visibly,  whilst  yet 
in  the  exercise  of  every  energy,  from  a  high  post  of  usefulness  into  the 
kingdom  of  glory,  may  have  fewer  at  the  judgment  to  witness  to  the 
success  of  his  labors,  than  many  a  bed-ridden  Christian,  who  is  waiting 
year  after  year,  in  the  beautiful  quietness  of  a  godly  submission,  his 
summons  to  depart.  I  know  not  that  the  brilliant  translation  of  Elijah 
did  as  much  for  Israel  as  the  lingering  dissolution  of  Ehsha.  It  was  from 
the-sick  bed,  and  not  from  the  chariot  of  fire,  that  there  went  forth 
"  the  arrow  of  the  Lord's  deUverance,  and  the  arrow  of  deliverance 
from  Assyria."  At  all  events,  God  made  use  of  both  these  servants, 
made  use  qf  them,  we  mean,  in  the  very  act  of  their  departure  from 
life,  so  that  nothing  is  to  be  inferred  from  the  difierence  in  the  depar- 
ture, but  a  difference  in  the  Divine  purpose,  and  not  a  difference  in  the 
Divine  favor.  Elijah  was  translated,  we  may  beheve,  not  merely,  nor 
even  mainly,  as  a  mark  of  God's  preference  of  himself,  but  to  give  a 
signal  evidence  of  the  truths  of  resurrection  and  immortality,  and  thus 
to  deliver  to  his  nation,  as  well  as  to  the  world,  instruction  upon  points 
but  dimly  known,  though  of  the  highest  possible  importance  and  interest. 
And  Elisha  was  left,  we  may  venture  to  assume,  not  because  he  was 
unworthy  of  so  glorious  and  triumphant  a  removal,  and  required  for 
his  own  preparation  the  processes  of  more  lengthened  trial,  but  because 
his  remaining  might  be  instrumental  to  the  turning  numbers  from  idol- 
atry, and  even  old  age  and  sickness  might  be  employed  in  services 
acceptable  to  God ;  ay,  services,  it  may  be,  which  shall  be  recompensed 
by  a  yet  brighter  glory  in  the  invisible  world  than  had  been  attained 
by  the  prophet  who  went  away  so  gloriously  in  the  chariot  of  fire. 
Thus  Elijah  did  God's  work  in  disappearing,  and  Elisha  in  remaining  ; 
the  one  by  mounting  in  the  whirlwind,  the  other  by  lingering  on  the 
bed,  and  sinking  slowly  into  the  grave.  And  it  is  the  same  still.  God 
has  particular  lessons  to  give,  and  particular  ends  to  answer,  when  he 


270  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

calls  away  one  of  his  servants  in  the  midst  of  his  strength  and  with 
every  indication  of  triumph,  and  when  he  leaves  another,  not  even  to 
be  employed  in  laborious  exertion,  but  to  spend  months,  and  even 
years,  in  the  silence  of  his  chamber  and  in  the  solitariness  of  liis  couch. 
Dismiss,  then,  the  thought  that  there  is  anything  strange  in  the  linger- 
ing sickness  and  the  long  delayed  deaths  of  Christians  who  have  given 
full  evidence  of  their  faith  and  their  piety.  They  are  ready,  they  are 
fit  to  die,  if  by  readiness,  if  by  fitness,  we  mean  such  a  spiritual  state 
that  hope  might  justly  plant  itself  by  their  graVe,  and  smile  beautifully 
as  they  were  committed  to  its  cold  embrace.  But  God  has  still  work 
for  them  to  do,  and  heaven  has  still  prizes  for  them  to  win.  Therefore 
do  they  live  ;  therefore  is  the  lamp  so  long  in  going  out.  They  live 
that  they  may  preach,  they  live  that  they  may  practice,  Christianity. 
The  lamp  yet  burns,  that  the  flickering  light  may  guide  some  wandering 
or  wavering  spirit,  and  add  another  sparkle  to  the  crown  of  righteous- 
ness which  shall  be  awarded  at  the  judgment.  Oh  !  then  marvel  not 
that  death  comes  so  slowly.  The  mercy  is,  that  it  comes  not  more 
quickly.  And  whensoever  Elisha,  the  old  and  worn  down  man,  "  falls 
sick  of  the  sickness  whereof  he  must  die,"  in  place  of  looking  on  him 
as  he  lingers  as  on  one  who  can  be  of  no  further  use,  rather  regard  him 
as  still  an  efficient  laborer  in  the  highest  of  causes,  and  breathe  over 
him  such  words  as  were  breathed  by  Joash,  king  of  Israel ;  words 
expressive  of  the  blank  which  his  departure  must  leave  —  "  My  father, 
my  father,  the  chariot  of  Israel,  and  the  horsemen  thereof." 

And  yet,  perhaps,  —  this  is  the  last  thmg  I  have  to  say  —  you  still  feel 
as  though  it  were  upon  Elijah  that  the  great  honor  was  put.  He  may 
seem  to  you  to  have  obtained  the  better  portion  of  the  two.  You  contrast 
the  bed  of  languishing  with  the  chariot  of  fire,  and  you  cannot  hesitate 
as  to  which  were  the  preferable  lot.  Well,  it  has  not  been  the  object 
of  our  discourse  to  make  you  think  the  departure  of  Elijah  less  glorious, 
but  that  of  Elisha  glorious  also,  because  also  useful.  There  was  a 
greater  brilliancy  about  that  witness  to  the  truth  of  a  resurrection, 
which  Elijah  was  removed  that  he  might  give,  than  about  that  conversion 
of  numbers  from  idolatry,  which  Elisha  remained  that  he  might  effect. 
And,  in  like  manner,  that  at  the  least  as  much  of  usefulness  appertains 
to  the  lingering  old  age  and  the  sickness  of  one  Christian  as  to  the 
earlier  and  more  triumphant  death  of  another  —  this  may  be  proved, 
without  your  feehng  satisfied  that  the  diversity  of  God's  deaUngs  should 
not  be  taken  in  evidence  of  some  diversity  in  his  favor.  Now  we 
might  safely  refer  to  another  life,  to  the  decisions  and  allotments  of 
another  state  of  being,  for  full  proof  that  God  may  as  graciously 
approve,  and  design  as  gloriously  to  recompense,  the  patience  of  the 


ELIJAH    AXB    ELISHA.  271 

sufferer  on  his  sick  bed,  as  the  boldness  of  the  martyr  at  the  stake.  • 
But  even  in  this  life  he  ■will  often  provide  that  they  Avho  serve  him 
through  solitary  watching  and  meek  endurance,  should  share  his  honors 
with  those  -whose  virtues  have  been  more  conspicuous,  and  whose  actions 
more  brilliant.  Seems  it  to  you  to  have  been  so  glorious  a  thing  to 
have  witnessed,  as  Elijah  witnessed,  to  the  truth  of  a  resurrection ; 
and  would  you  not  have  wondered,  had  Elisha,  as  he  lingered  on  his 
bed,  sighed  for  the  privilege  of  giving  a  hke  testimony  to  so  stupendous 
a  fact  ?  After  all,  then,  which  of  the  two  was  most  honored  as  a 
witness  to  the  resurrection,  Elijah,  who  departed  in  the  whirlwind,  or 
Elisha,  who  went  down  into  the  grave  ?  Know  ye  not  what  nan-ative 
follows  immediately  on  that  of  the  sickness  and  death  of  Elisha  — 
immediately,  as  though  God  would  prevent  the  suspicion  that  he  had 
put  an  honor  on  one  servant  which  he  had  denied  to  another  ?  It  is 
this  :  —  "  And  Ehsha  died,  and  they  buried  him.  And  the  bands  of 
the  Moabites  invaded  the  land  at  the  coming  in  of  the  year.  And  it 
came  to  pass,  as  they  were  burying  a  man,  that,  behold,  they  spied  a 
band  of  men ;  and  they  cast  the  man  into  the  sepulchre  of  Elisha :  and 
when  the  man  was  let  down,  and  touched  the  bones  of  Elisha,  he 
revived,  and  stood  up  on  his  feet."  Nay,  sirs,  was  there  more  glori- 
ousness  in  the  chai'iot  of  fire  than  in  this  ?  Was  it  a  more  wondrous 
thing  not  to  die,  than,  when  dead,  to  give  life  ?  Was  it  a  greater  proof 
of  God's  approval,  to  escape  the  grave,  than  to  defeat  it  whilst  lying  in 
it  ?  Was  there  a  stronger  attestation  to  the  truth  of  a  resurrection 
when  a  living  man  sprang  from  the  earth,  showing  that  body  as  well  as 
soul  can  ascend  up  on  high,  than  when  a  dead  man  took  off  the  grave 
clotlies,  and  returned  to  his  fellow  men  —  an  evidence  that  a  prophet 
greater  than  Elijah  or  Elisha  would  yet  lie  among  the  buried,  but  only 
to  despoU  the  sepulchres  of  their  prey  ?  It  might  almost  be  said,  that 
God  showed  himself  jealous  for  the  honor  of  his  servant  Ehsha,  and 
put  him,  as  it  were,  on  a  par  with  Elijah,  by  giving  him,  if  not  mirac- 
ulous departure  out  of  life,  yet  miraculous  energy  after  death.  If  it 
were  as  a  type  of  the  ascending  Christ,  that  Elijah  went  up  to 
heaven,  siirely  it  was  a  type  of  Christ  "  through  death  destroying 
him  that  had  the  power  of  death,"  that  the  bones  of  Elisha  communi- 
cated life.  And  God  still  often  effects  something  similar  in  regard  to 
his  servants.  The  aged  believer,  whose  closing  scene  has  been  regarded 
as  furnishing  only  material  of  melancholy  contrast,  whether  with  his 
own  more  active  days,  or  with  the  more  rapid  and  joyful  transition  of 
his  own  brethren  in  the  flesh,  so  debilitated  has  he  been  by  long  sick- 
ness, —  "  My  heart  is  smitten  and  withered  like  grass,  so  that  I  forget 
to  eat  my  bread,"  —  often  wins  after  death  a  testimony  to  his  usefulness 


272  THE   ENGLISH    PULPIT. 

whicli  may  well  compensate  for  the  darkness  which  seemed  to  hang  over 
his  dechne.  The  good  deeds  wrought  by  liim  in  his  protracted  illness, 
may  not  immediately  appear ;  but  afterwards  we  learn  that  he  did  not 
linger  in  vain,  that  he  did  not  die  in  vain,  The  example  is  remembered, 
the  patience,  the  meekness,  —  remembered  by  children,  by  servants, 
by  friends,  by  neighbors.  It  is  remembered,  to  be  imitated  in  their  own 
day  of  sorrow,  their  own  hour  of  dissolution.  Then  it  administers 
courage,  constancy,  hope  ;  and  what  is  this,  but  the  bones  of  Elisha 
communicating  life  ?  Oh  !  we  may  not  look  with  Elijah  to  escape  death ; 
but  we  may  look  with  Elisha  to  work  wonders  after  death.  We  may 
suffer  much,  we  may  linger  long,  —  no  burning  rapture  may  charac- 
terize our  going  hence  ;  but  if  there  be  patient  submission  to  the  will 
of  the  Lord,  our  memory  may  survive,  and  be  instrumental  to  the 
victories  of  religion.  Oh !  who  would  complain  at  not  being  borne 
away  in  the  fire  of  heaven,  if,  whilst  in  dust,  he  should  turn  others 
from  the  fire  of  hell  ? 


SERMON    XXIII. 

Ijhe   happy   man   a   religious   man. 

BY  REV  EGBERT  NEWTON,  D.  D. 


"  Happy  is  that  people,  that  is  in  such  a  case ;  yea,  happy  is  that  people,  whose  God  is 
the  Lord."  —  Psalm  csliv.  15. 

Man  is  obviously  formed  for  happiness.  Indeed  this  is  matter  of 
consciousness  to  all ;  we  all  feel  that  it  is  as  natural  for  us  to  desire  to 
be  happy  as  it  is  for  us  to  breathe.  This  is  nature's  first  and  last  wish  ; 
and  the  desire  of  happiness  forms  not  noly  one  of  the  earliest,  but  one 
of  the  most  powerful  principles  of  our  nature. 

But  although  happiness  is  earnestly  desired,  and  although,  in  one 
way  or  other,  happiness  is  universally  pursued,  the  melancholy  fact  is, 
after  all,  that  it  is  but  very  partially  enjoyed.  Unhappy/  man  has  long 
since  become  a  general  designation  for  our  species.  And  we  are  not 
surprised  at  this,  when  we  recollect  that  very  many  of  our  race,  after 
devoting  many  a  long  year  of  fruitless  toil  and  labor  to  the  search 
for  happiness,  have  all  but  arrived  at  the  conclusion,  (if  they  have 


THE   HAPPY   MAN   A   RELIGIOUS   MAN  273 

not  actually  arrived  there,)  that  its  attainment  is  impossible  —  that  all 
that  they  have  heard  and  read  concerning  it,  is  deceptive  and  unreal 
—  and  that,  iu  point  of  fact,  there  is  no  such  thing  to  be  attained  or 
enjoyed  by  man  in  this  desert  world. 

What,  then,  my  dear  friends,  is  to  be  done  ?  Are  we  to  sit  down  in 
despondency  ?  and  are  we,  very  soon  after  that,  to  abandon  ourselves 
to  despair  ?  and,  sitting  side  by  side,  are  we  to  heave  sigh  for  sigh,  to 
shed  tear  for  tear,  and,  looking  on  one  another  through  the  medium  of 
those  tears,  are  we  to  say,  Alas  !  there  is  no  happiness  ?  Can  we 
suppose  that  the  wise  and  benevolent  author  of  our  existence  has  made 
us  capable  of  that  which  he  has  determined  we  shall  not  enjoy  ?  Can 
we  suppose  that  he,  that  is  the  former  of  us  all,  has  implanted  in  our 
bosoms  the  desire  of  happiness  —  created  there  the  intense  thirst  after 
happiness — -whilst  he  has  placed  the  satiating  stream  yonder  far 
beyond  our  reach  ?  It  cannot  be.  Heaven  never  had  created  but  to 
bless.  What  other  motive  could  possibly  have  induced  the  Divine 
Being  to  give  existence  to  the  human  being,  but  that  of  diffusing  happi- 
ness —  making  his  creature,  man,  happy  ? 

And  man  was  happy  when  God  made  him ;  but  then  he  was  happy 
in  his  God,  and  he  was  to  be  happy  in  nothi^ig  contrary  to  God,  and  in 
nothing  without  God.  And  while  man  remained  with  God,  his  happi- 
ness remained  with  him  ;  but  when  by  transgression  he  fell  from  God, 
he  lost  his  happiness.  And  now  man  is  unhappy,  because  he  is  guilty  ; 
he  is  unhappy,  because  he  is  unholy ;  he  is  unhappy,  because  he 
is  unlike  God.  He  wants  to  be  happy  independently.  He  feels 
painfully  that  he  has  lost  his  happiness,  but  then  he  knows  very 
well  that  he  has  not  lost  the  capacity  for  enjoyment  ;  and  he 
feels  —  strongly  feels  —  he  has  not  lost  the  desire  after  it,  but 
then  he  seeks  it  any  where  —  every  where  —  except  where  alone  he 
can  find  it.  He  "  spends  his  money  for  that  which  is  not  bread,  his 
labor  for  that  which  satisfieth  not."  He  seeks  happiness  in  very 
vanity,  he  seeks  happiness  in  folly,  he  seeks  happiness  in  sin.  But 
instead  of  rest  and  peace,  he  finds  toil  and  labor ;  instead  of  happi- 
ness and  repose,  he  finds  vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit. 

"When  abandoning  all  these  earthly  cisterns  (which  are  all  "  broken 
cisterns,  and  which  contain  no  water  —  not  a  drop  of  real  happiness 
for  the  spiritual  immortal  mind  of  man,)  man  betakes  himself  to  God 
in  Christ  as  his  only  refuge,  and  seeks  to  be  accepted  of  God  in  Christ, 
and  the  Lord  becomes  his  God,  then  he  finds  the  happiness  which  he 
sought  in  vain  elsewhere.  Then  he  comes  to  the  fountain  of  living 
water ;  and  then  he  drinks  and  is  satisfied.  Then  he  can  subscribe  to 
the  doctrine  which  my  text  contains,  "  Happy  is  that  people,  that  is  in 
18 


274  THE   ENGLISH   PULriT. 

such  a  case;  yea,  happy,"  beyond  all  compare,  "is  that  people, 
■whose  God  is  the  Lord." 

Now  that  is  our  God,  to  which  we  are  principally  devoted  ;  that  is 
our  God  which  has  the  first  place  in  our  thoughts,  and  which  has  the 
highest  place  in  our  affections  :  that  is  our  God,  to  which  we  bow  down, 
to  which  we  continually  pay  our  devotion  —  whatever  it  may  be  ;  it 
may  be  some  idol.  Now  to  have  Jehovah  for  our  God  is  to  have  our 
thoughts  first  of  all  accupied  with  him  —  to  have  our  affections 
supremely  placed  on  him  —  to  be  reconciled  to  him  —  to  be  accepted 
of  him  through  Jesus  Christ  —  to  know  him,  and  to  love  him,  and 
to  live  devoted  to  him.  And  my  text  declares,  that  all  such  persons 
are  really  and  pre-eminently  happy. 

Now  one  would  suppose  that  a  discourse  on  the  subject  of  happiness 
must  be  interesting  to  all,  because  all  are  in  search  of  it.  One  would 
suppose  that  such  a  discourse  must  be  interesting  to  young  people  ;  I 
see  a  great  number  of  young  people  (and  with  very  great  pleasure) 
in  this  assembly,  and  I  know  my  young  friends  are  all  intensely  desirous 
to  obtain  happiness.  Let  me,  then,  try,  in  dependence  on  Divine  aid, 
to  show  you  where  it  is  to  be  found,  and  to  show  you  the  nature  and  the 
excellence  of  "  the  people  Avhose  God  is  the  Lord  ;"  and  having  done 
this,  let  me  endeavor  to  state,  and  to  lay  prostrate  some  of  those 
objections,  which  are  sometimes  urged  against  the  doctrine  which  my 
text  contains. 

I.  The  nature  and  excellence  of  "  the  people  whose  God  is 
THE  Lord."     They  are  "  happy. ''^ 

And  what  is  happiness  ?  It  is  enjoyment,  it  is  satisfaction,  it  is 
delight.  And,  for  any  thing  I  know  to  the  contrary,  the  different  beings 
that  inhabit  this  earth  are  obliged,  by  their  own  nature,  to  seek  for 
enjoyment,  to  seek  for  a  bhss  suited  to  their  nature  ;  and  for  anything 
I  know,  they  are  happy,  just  in  proportion  as  they  are  in  their  proper 
element,  and  as  they  possess  and  enjoy  what  may  be  called  their  cliief 
good  ;  they  have  an  enjoyment  according  to  their  nature  and  capacity. 

And,  my  dear  friends,  is  it  not  in  this  way  that  we  are  to  ascertain 
how  man  becomes  happy  ?  Surely,  he  cannot  be  happy  till  he  lives 
in  his  proper  element  ;  he  cannot  be  happy  till  he  finds  and  enjoys 
his  chief  good.  And  need  I  tell  my  friends  where  that  is,  and 
what  tbat  is  ?  Is  it  not  he,  who  is  the  father  of  the  human 
spirit  —  the  centre  and  the  rest  of  the  soul  of  man  ?  Did  He  not 
form  our  spirits  for  Himself?  And  is  it  not  there  alone  that  we  find  our 
proper  element —  the  element  of  the  soul,  for  which  it  was  originally 
formed  ?     And  is  it  not  there  —  in  the  enjoyment  of  God —  that  we 


THE   HAPPY    MAN    A    PvELIGl'OUS    MAX.  275 

find  our  chief  good  ?  There,  and  there  alone  we  find  a  portion,  suited 
to  our  nature  and  equal  to  our  capacities,  commensurate  with  all  our 
wishes,  and  lasting  as  our  being. 

1.  This  happiness,  however,  is  all  aggregate.  There  are  various 
ingredients  in  the  happiness  of  this  people,  "  the  people  whose  God  is 
the  Lord."     At  present  I  will  select  three  of  these  ingredients. 

And  I  begin  by  remarking,  that  "  the  people  whose  God  is  the 
Lord,"  are  happy  inasmuch  as  they  enjoy  the  peace  of  God.  I  name 
this  in  the  fii-st  instance,  because  I  believe  it  is  the  lowest  grade  of  all 
true  religious  happiness.     It  begins  here. 

That  "  there  is  no  peace  to  the  wicked,"  is  a  fact  —  a  truth  which 
reason  suggests,  a  truth  which  revelation  asserts,  a  truth  which  expe- 
rience awfully  demonstrates.  An  old  Pagan  could  stumble  upon  this 
truth —  "  No  wicked  man  is  happy."  And  no  wicked  man,  as  such,  can 
be  happy,  because  every  thing  is  out  of  course  ;  all  is  in  a  state  of  moral 
derangement,  disorder  and  chaos,  and,  therefore,  there  can  be  no  real 
enjoyment.  What  are  the  wicked  like  ?  The  prophet  tells  you  what. 
I  was  thinking  the  other  night  when  on  the  ocean,  and  when  the  raging 
billows  dashed  against  the  vessel  —  I  thought  of  the  language  of  the 
prophet,  "  The  wicked  is  like  the  troubled  sea  "  — not  the  sea  when 
it  is  calm,  and  serene,  and  placid,  but  the  ocean  when  tempest-tossed, 
one  angry  wave  succeeding  another.  That  is  the  emblem  of  a  wicked 
mind,  the  emblem  of  an  unsanctified  heart  —  all  agitation,  commotion, 
and  disorder.  "  There  is  no  peace  "  —  there  can  be  none  —  "  to  the 
wicked." 

Now,  this  is  clearly  seen  by  the  enlightened  mind,  and  this  is  deeply 
felt  by  the  enlightened  conscience.  There  is  not  only  the  perception 
of  what  is  really  the  bane  of  happiness  —  sin,  guilt,  depravity  ;  but 
there  is  the  painful  feeling,  too,  so  that,  while  we  see  our  sin,  we  fee! 
its  curse  —  what  "  an  evil  and  a  bitter  thing  "  it  is,  to  sin  against 
God.  The  arrow  of  truth  thus  penetrates  the  heart  and  conscience 
of  the  awakened  sinner,  and  he  feels  the  poigiiant  smart,  writhes  under 
an  agonized  conscience,  and  asks.  Where  shall  my  agonized  conscience 
find  rest ;  I  am  vile  ;  I  deserve  to  perish  ;  I  am  undone,  unless  divine 
mercy  interpose  :  myself  I  cannot  save  ;  an  angel's  arm  cannot  rescue 
me  from  impending  ruin ;  I  cannot  extract  this  dart ;  I  cannot  heal 
the  wound,  I  cannot  atone  for  a  single  sin,  I  cannot  wash  out  any 
moi-al  stain ;  what  shall  I  do  ?  The  gospel  tells  you  what  to  do  : 
*'  Beheve  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  thou  shalt  be  saved."  That 
is  the'simple,  direct,  and  safe  answer  given  to  the  inquiry,  "  What 
must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  "  Whoever  you  may  be,  "  Believe  on  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  you  shall  be  saved."      That  is  the  Scripture 


276  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

way  of  salvation.  Come,  as  a  lost  sinner,  to  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  onlj 
Savior,  and  venture  thj  soul  on  the  sacrifice  of  Calvary  ;  cast  thyself 
upon  that  atonement  which  was  made  for  the  sin  of  a  guilty  world ; 
believe  on  him, 

''  Who  died,  thy  sin  to  atoDC, 
And  lives,  thy  soul  to  save." 

and  lives  to  dispense  the  pardon  he  bought  with  his  blood ;  and  believ- 
ing on  him  "  with  thy  heart  unto  righteousness,"  thy  guilt  shall  be 
removed,  thy  burden  fall  to  the  ground,  thy  chains  be  snapped  asunder, 
and  thou  shalt  enter  into  liberty,  and  light,  and  life. 

And  now  the  penitent  believer  in  Jesus  looks  up,  and  that  cloud  that 
gathered  blackness  over  him  before,  is  dispersed,  and  his  heaven-born 
soul  drinks  in  the  radiance  of  the  Sun  of  righteousness.  He  looks 
up,  and  finds  that  "  being  justified  by  faith,  he  has  peace  with  God  " 
—  oh !  what  happiness  is  this !  —  "  peace  with  God,  through  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ."  And  this  peace  of  God,  he  finds,  "  passeth  all  under- 
standing, and  it  keeps  his  heart  and  mind  in  the  knowledge  and  love 
of  God,  by  Christ  Jesus."  What  a  change  has  now  taken  place ! 
Conscience  now  smiles,  and  whispers  peace.  A  divine  peace — a 
holy,  heavenly,  serenity — is  transfused  through  his  very  soul.  And 
you  must  not  go  to  the  angry  ocean,  to  see  an  emblem  of  him  now  ; 
you  must  rather  go  yonder  to  the  margin  of  some  transparent  lake, 
whose  placid  bosom  reflects  all  the  loveliness  of  surrounding  nature  — 
there  is  the  sweet  and  delightful  emblem  of  a  heart  filled  with  the 
peace  of  God.     "  Happy  is  the  people  that  is  in  such  a  case." 

Let  me  name  another  ingredient  in  this  cup  of  bliss  ;  "  the  people, 
whose  God  is  the  Lord,"  are  liajpipy  in  the  possession  and  enjoyment 
of  the  love  of  God.  Love  is  the  master-passion  of  the  soul  \  and  it  is 
of  the  essence  of  love,  to  give  delight  in  proportion  to  the  suitableness 
and  excellence  of  its  object.  But  we  are  not  now  speaking  of  a  merely 
human  passion,  but  we  are  speaking  of  a  divine  and  gracious  principle ; 
we  are  speaking  of  the  "  love  of  God  "  (to  use  St.  Paul's  emphatic 
language,)  "  shed  abroad  in  the  heart  by  the  Holy  -Ghost  given  unto 
us."  And  no  sooner  do  we  believe  on  Jesus  Christ  aright,  but  this 
"  faith  works  by  love."  The  love  of  God  in  Christ  is  revealed  in  our 
hearts  ;  and  it  is  that,  so  far  as  I  understand  it,  so  far  as  the  Bible 
directs  me  on  the  subject  —  it  is  that  love  that  kindles  love  in  our 
hearts.  Some  mystical  writers,  some  century  since,  said  some  very 
fine  things  on  this  subject ;  some  theologians  and  some  poets,  said 
some  very  beautiful  things  upon  the  subject ;  they  had  an  idea  of  loving 
God  on  account  of  his  own  supreme  and  excellent  loveliness,  and  I 
remember  one  of  them  going  so  far  as  to  say,  that,  were  the  writer 


TUE   HAPPY   MAN   A  RELIGIOUS   MAN.  277 

sent  to  tlie  bad  place,  even  from  thence  there  must  be  love  to  a  bemg 
infinitely  amiable  ;  and  some  modern  writei-s,  too,  have  said,  that  the 
human  mind,  fallen  as  it  is,  must  admire  what  is  supremely  excellent, 
and  fitting,  and  amiable,  and  be  attracted  by  it.  My  dear  friends,  is 
it  not,  (think  you,)  the  very  best  answer  to  this,  that  there  is  not  a 
word  of  it,  that  I  know  of,  in  the  Bible  ?  —not  one.  All  this  might 
have  done  very  well,  for  aught  I  know,  for  Adam  and  Eve  in  para- 
dise, before  sm  was  introduced,  when  th^ir  nature  was  immaculate,  and 
all  was  right : 

Pure  was  the  body,  and  the  soul  serene ; 

And  I  dare  say,  those  happy  and  pure  intelligences  around  the  throne 
can  dehght  in  that  which  is  infinitely  amiable,  and  lovely,  and  beauti- 
ful ;  and  seraphs  beholding  the  divine  excellence  and  glory  burn  with 
intense  ardor,  and  love,  and  devotion.  Ah !  but  man  is  fallen.  Ac- 
count for  it  as  you  will,  he  is  not  the  c^'eature  now  he  was  when  God 
created  him.  Some  sad  thing  has  happened  to  him ;  and  the  Bible 
tells  me  how,  and  I  know  no  other  way  of  acoounting  for  it.  And  my 
conviction  is,  that  there  is  too  much  blindness  in  the  human  will,  and 
too  much  corruption  and  earthliness  in  the  human  heart,  and  too  much 
frostiness  (if  I  may  be  allowed  the  expression,)  —  too  much  frostiness 
and  ice  there,  for  that  heart  ever  to  rise  in  love  to  God,  merely  because 
he  is  infinitely  lovely.  Oh  !  if  these  hearts  of  ours  ever  rise  in  love  to 
God,  the  God  of  Love  must  come  down  and  touch  these  hearts  of  ours  ; 
his  love,  through  Jesus,  must  be  manifested  to  these  hearts  of  ours, 
and  we  must  have  a  vivid  impression  of  it,  and  then  will  our  love  be 
lighted  up  in  return ;  a  spark  from  the  fire  of  divine  love  must  fall 
upon  our  hearts,  and  then  will  our  love  be  kindled  up  in  return,  and 
we  shall  say,  "  We  love  him,  because  he  first  loved  us." 

This  divine  love  is  completely  satisfied  with  the  suitableness  and  the 
fulness  of  its  object  —  the  chief  good,  the  supreme  excellence,  the 
blessed  God  ;  and  the  soul,  in  union  with  God,  and  in  the  exercise  of 
this  feeling,  rises  in  emotions  of  desire,  and  in  emotions  of  esteem, 
and  in  emotions  of  gratitude,  and  in  emotions  of  holy  complacency  and 
delight.  And  there  are  moments,  when  "  the  people,  whose  God  is 
the  Lord,"  in  the  exercise  of  th*e  love  of  God,  loving  that  God  who 
has  first  loved  them,  can  say,  with  the  delighted  and  devout  psalmist, 
"  Whom  have  I  in  heaven  but  thee  ?  and  there  is  none  upon  earth, 
that  I  desire  besides  thee."  But  then,  come  not  near,  ye  sensual  and 
profane.  These  are  delights  to  which  you  arc  strangers ;  this  is  a 
holy  and  divine  love,  which  dwells  not  in  your  unhallowed  breasts  ;  it 
is  sacred  to  "  that  people,  whose  God  is  the  Lord."  What  is  it?  it  is 
the  calm  sunshuae  of  the  peaceful  mind.     What  is  it  ?  it  is  an  emana- 


278  THE    ENGLISH    PULPIT. 

tion  from  paradise,  beaming  forth  upon  the  heart  of  the  beUever. 
What  is  it  ?  why,  it  is  the  verj  element  of  heaven  realized  on  earth  ; 
for  heaven  is  love.  What  is  it  ?  why,  it  is  the  transporting  delight  of 
angels ;  for  the  happiness  of  angels  is  the  happiness  of  love,  and  what, 
can  Gabriel  more  than  love  God  and  be  happy  ?  What  is  it  ?  it  is  a 
beam  of  the  eternal  being.  What  is  it  ?  it  is  the  very  nature  and 
image  of  God  restored  to  the  soul  of  mahj  for  "  God  is  love,  and  he 
that  dwelleth  in  love  "  — mar]i  you,  that  is  his  element,  that  is  his 
habitation,  that  is  the  atmosphere  he  breathes  —  "  he,  that  dwelleth 
in  love,  dwelleth  in  God,  and  God  in  him."  "  Happy  is  the  people, 
that  is  in  such  a  case." 

And  then,  if  the  impression  be  not  always  so  vivid,  and  if  the  hap- 
piness rise  not  always  so  high,  what  then  ?  why,  let  me  say,  that  "  the 
people,  whose  God  is  the  Lord,"  are  always  happy  inasmuch  as  they 
always  hope  in  Crod.  Hope !  oh,  what  a  thing  is  hope  !  Poets  have 
descanted  on  the  pleasures  of  hope  ;  ah  !  but  the  hope  of.  the  Chris- 
tian !  that  gives  pleasure  indeed  ;  that  produces  happiness  —  a  happi- 
ness, with  which  "  a  stranger  intermeddleth  not."  Hope  has  some- 
thing good  to  look  at ;  its  object  must  be  good,  or  it  is  not  hope  ;  that 
which  we  do  not  regard  as  good,  we  cannot  hope  for  —  we  may  fear 
it,  and  dread  it,  but  we  cannot  hope  for  it.  Again,  hope  means 
desire  —  desire  of  that  which  is  good ;  hope  means  expectation  —  we 
expect  the  good  that  we  desire.  And  then  this  expectation,  and  this 
desire  of  good  promote  the  most  pleasurable  and  delightful  emotions 
in  the  heart.  Now  "  the  people,  whose  God  is  the  Lord,"  hope  for 
the  care  and  bounty  of  a  good  providence,  while  they  are  in  this 
world.  And,  oh !  what  comfort  this  brings  to  the  mind  1  what  a 
defenceless,  dependent  creature  is  man  !  but  then,  to  have  a  hope  in 
providence,  and  to  believe  that  there  is  a  watchful  eye  always  upon 
us,  and  a  good  hand  with  us  for  our  good,  and  that  "  the  very  hairs 
of  our  head  are  all  numbered,"  and  that  our  heavenly  Father  knows 
what  we  need,  and  that  he  can  take  care  for  us,  and  provide  for  us  — 
why,  what  comfort  does  this  bring  to  the  mind  !  And  then,  again, 
"  the  people,  whose  God  is  the  Lord,"  hope  for  all  the  gi-ace  they 
want,  to  enable  them  to  be  what  God"  commands  them  to  be,  and  to  do 
what  God  commands  them  to  do,  and  to  suffer  what  God  commands 
them  to  endure ;  they  hope  for  "  grace  to  help  in  time  of  need ;  " 
they  hope  for  grace  to  make  them  holy,  as  well  as  make  them  happy, 
and  make  them  happy  by  making  them  holy  ;  and  they  hope  for  grace 
to  make  them  live  well,  and  grace  to  make  them  die  well ;  and  God 
has  said,  "  My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee."  But,  then,  they  look 
beyond  this  world  of  time  and  sense.     There  is  the  proper  object  of 


THE   HAPPY   MAN   A   RELIGIOUS   MAN.  279 

hope,  and  there  it  sparkles  through  the  sky — "glory,  honor,  and 
immortality,"  "  eternal  life,"  the  heaven  of  God,  all  that  heaven  is, 
and  all  that  heaven  has  to  give.  Why  now,  my  dear  friends,  do  you 
not  see  the  men  of  this  world,  when  they  are  hoping  for  something 
which  they  greatly  desire,  and  when  the  way  seems  clear  and  impedi- 
ments removed,  and  they  expect  very  soon  to  realize  all  that  which 
they  desire  and  hope  for  —  do  you  not  see,  that  that  emotion  gives 
way  to  emotions  little  less  than  transport  ?  and  yet  it  is,  perhaps, 
something  perishable  and  something  worthless.  What,  then,  must  be 
the  hope  of  the  Christian,  who  has  "  Christ  formed  in  his  heart,  the 
hope  of  glory,"  who  is  hoping,  not  for  an  earthly  crown,  but  for  a 
celestial  diadem,  and  who  is  hoping  for  a  glorified  body  as  well  as  a 
glorified  soul,  in  a  glorious  heaven  of  joy  for  ever  ?  Can  it  be,  that 
the  man  who  has  this  hope,  can  be  a  wretched  man  ?  I  see  not  how 
it  can  be.  Why,  it  must  sweeten  all  the  bitters  of  life  ;  it  must  sus- 
tain the  man  under  the  pressure  of  afflictions  and  trials.  Oh  !  yes, 
this  hope  administers  a  cordial  in  your  troubles  ;  this  hope  comes  like 
an  angel,  and  beckons  you  onward,  and  points  you  to  the  skies  yonder ; 
and  you  then  take  'courage.  The  hope  of  the  Christian  unites  and 
brings  together  the  Christian's  double  heaven  ;  for  we  must  have  a 
double  heaven,  or  no  heaven  —  heaven  here,  and  heaven  there  — 
heaven  on  the  way,  and  heaven  at  home  —  heaven  in  reserve,  and 
heaven  enjoyed. 

2.  Now,  then,  mark  the  eminence  and  the  excellence  of  this  happi- 
ness, "  Yea,  happy  ; "  for  the  psalmist  did  not  satisfy  himself  with 
simply  stating  the  fact,  that  the  people  of  God  are  happy  —  "  happy 
is  that  people,  that  is  in  such  a  case  "  — but  he  repeats  his  words 
with  stronger  emphasis,  "  Yea,  happy  is  the  people,  whose  God  is  the 
Lor^." 

Mark  the  eminence  of  this  happiness,  from  the  circumstance  that  it 
is  substantial  in  its  nature.  It  is  not  a  mere  phantom  ;  it  is  not  a 
name  without  a  nature  ;  it  is  not  a  sign  without  a  thing  to  be  signified 
thereby.  Such,  indeed,  is  all  that  this  world  calls  bliss  ;  that  is  a  wild 
delirium,  that  is  a  delusive  dream,  that  is  a  sort  of  phantom  in  yonder 
void,  exhibiting  itself  under  various  colors  and  various  forms  of  fascin- 
ation, and  the  eager,  infatuated  votaries,  run  after  it  with  all  their 
might ;  and  they  see  it  dancing  before  them  at  some  place  of  public 
amusement  or  public  resort,  and  there  they  run  with  all  possible  eager- 
ness, expecting  to  lay  hold  of  it  —  but  it  eludes  their  grasp ;  and 
there,  again,  is  another  occasion,  when  it  rises  before  them,  and  they 
think  it  looks  more  inviting  than  it  ever  did  before,  and  they  run  after 
it  with  as  much  eagerness  as  if  they  had  never  Deen  disappointed 


280  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

before  —  again  it  eludes  their  grasp ;  and  again  it  appears,  and  away 
they  go,  in  high  expectation  that  they  shall  obtain  it  now,  and  they 
grasp  the  phantom  —  but  they  find  it  air.  The  bubble  is  no  sooner 
touched  than  it  dissolves ;  and  there  is  not  a  drop  of  happiness  obtained. 
Ah !  ye  worldhngs,  your  own  consciences  bear  me  witness,  that  what 
I  say  is  true.  It  is  so,  and  it  must  be  so,  with  what  this  world  calls 
happmess  ;  and  every  thing,  under  the  name  of  bhss,  that  is  not  con- 
sistent with  truth,  and  with  holiness,  and  with  religion. 

But  then  it  is  otherwise  with  religion.  This  is  not  a  mere  bubble, 
this  is  not  a  mere  name  ;  this  is  no  phantom ;  it  is  a  reality,  it  is  sub- 
stance. There  is  something  here  on  wliich  the  mind  of  man  can  feed ; 
there  is  something  here  to  sustain  the  soul,  and  nourish  the  soul,  and 
support  the  soul.  Oh !  yes,  "  the  favor  of  God  is  life,  and  his  loving- 
kindness  is  better  than  hfe."  Why,  that  word  does  not  mean  mere 
existence ;  for  bad  men  exist,  but  then  they  have  not  the  favor  of  God. 
Oh !  the  favor  of  God  means  real  enjoyment,  means  real  hajopiness. 
To  have  the  favor  of  him,  and  to  look  up  to  him,  and  enjoy  his  smile 
—  what  a  happiness  is  this !  The  good  man  has  not  to  rove  after  hap- 
piness all  over  the  world,  like  mere  men  of  the  world ;  oh !  no,  happi- 
ness resides  in  him  ;  there  is  "  a  well  of  water  "  opened  there  by  the 
power  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  and  it  is  "  springing  up,"  and,  springing 
up  "  to  everlasting  life." 

Then  mark  the  eminence  of  this  happiness,  too,  by  the  consideration 
of  its  transcendent  degree.  There  is  nothing  else  to  compare  to  it  in 
'this  way.  If  you  could,  in  your  own  thoughts  and  imaginations,  col- 
lect together  all  the  meagre  drops  of  what  this  world  calls  happiness, 
you  would  find,  that  all  collected  together,  they  are  not  worthy  to  be 
compared  with  the  substantial  bliss  of  "  the  people,  whose  God  is  the 
Lord."     Now,  try  this  for  a  moment. 

What  is,  or  can  be,  the  happiness  of  those  "  whose  God  is  their 
belly  ?  "  I  am  afraid  there  are  multitudes  of  men  in  this  professedly 
Christian  country,  who  worship  at  that  shrine,  and  whose  first  consid- 
eration, on  awaking  in  the  morning,  is,  now  what  shall  I  contrive  this 
day  by  which  I  shall  get  the  highest  enjoyment  ?  And  then  they 
call  in  art,  and  those  who  are  supposed  to  have  the  most  skill,  and  to 
dress  up  things  in  order  to  have  a  keener  relish  ;  and  "  what  shall  I 
eat?  and  what  shall  I  drink?"  —  is  their  first  object  day  by  day. 
Why,  perhaps,  that  man's  four-footed  brethren  yonder,  browsing  on 
the  herbage  of  the  field  —  the  simple,  suitable  food  which  nature  has 
furnished  for  them,  have  a  higher  relish  and  a  keener  zest  of  the  food 
which  Providence  has  supphed  to  them,  than  that  man  has  with  all 


THE   nAI'Py   MAN   A   RELIGIOUS   MAN.  281" 

his  modifications  of  art.  It  humbles  one  in  the  dust  to  think  one  is  of 
the  same  species  with  him. 

What  is,  or  can  be,  the  happiness  of  that  man  whose  god  is  his 
money  ?  Ah  !  Avhat  worshippers  have  found  this  god  —  INIammou ! 
Ah !  and  if  we  were  all  really  ascertained  in  the  hght  of  truth,  and 
in  the  light  of  God's  truth,  I  am  afraid  that  many  more  would  belong 
to  them  than  would  be  willing  to  be  acknowledged  as  such.  How 
many  are  there  who  have  no  idea  of  any  happiness  equal  to  that  which 
results  from  increasing  their  worldly  property  —  as  though  "  a  man's 
hfe  consisted  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  that  he  possesseth  "  — 
happiness  in  "  adding  house  to  house,  and  field  to  field  "  —  happiness 
in  loading  themselves  with  thick  clay  — happiness  derived  from  what  ? 
—  why,  from  getting  all  they  can,  and  keeping  all  they  get.  What 
do  you  call  this  man  ?  why,  he  has  a  name  in  our  language,  which  is 
scarcely  English  indeed,  but  I  can  give  you  the  interpretation ;  we 
call  him  miser  ;  and  w^ho  does  not  know,  that  that,  being  hiterpreted, 
means  miserable  ?  And  it  is  his  proper  name  ;  he  is  a  miserable  man, 
wherever  he  exists. 

Now  what  is,  or  can  be,  the  happiness  of  the  man  whose  god  is 
honor  ?  Ah !  there  are  beings  of  another  class,  a  dififerent  make  of 
mind,  who  despise  that  low  and  creeping  thing  called  money  ;  "  let 
those  seek  that  that  like  it,"  say  they,  "  but  give  us  honor,  give  us 
promotion,  give  us  distinction."  They  aspire  after  this,  and  they  use 
at  least  all  lawful,  (would  that  none  of  them  ever  stepped  over  that 
line  !)  they  use  at  least  all  lawful  means  to  obtain  this  world's  honor, 
and  they  imagine  that  that  can  give  happiness  to  the  mind.  Why,  my 
dear  friends,  I  might  go  on  with  these  remarks ;  I  might  go  on  to 
describe  all  those  different  classes  of  worshippers,  "  every  one  walking 
in  the  name  of  his  god ;  "  and  I  might  show  you,  that  instead  of  hap- 
piness, there  is  vanity  and  vexation  ;  and  that,  let  a  man  get  as  much 
as  this  world  can  give,  in  the  midst  of  all  the  heart  is  not  filled  — 
"  What,  is  this  all  I  am  to  have  ?  I  thought  I  was  to  be  happj-,  I 
thought  I  was  to  have  real,  solid  bliss,  but  I  find  it  to  be  all  empty 


air 


t " 


Oh  !  but  look  at  the  happiness  of  "  the  people,  whose  God  is  the 
Lord."  It  is  a  happiness  that  comes  from  heaven  ;  it  is  a  happiness 
independent  of  all  things  earthly.  If,  indeed,  Providence  smiles,  as 
the  context  describes,  and  good  men  have  abundance  of  temporal 
prosperity,  why,  they  know  from  whom  they  received  it  —  they  use 
it  with  temper  and  moderation  —  they  pray  for  the  sanctifying  bless- 
ing of  God  upon  that  which  they  have  —  and  the}'-  desire  to  do  good 
with  it.     And,  let  me  say,  that  real  religion  sanctifies  what  a  man 


282  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

possesses  in  this  world  —  gives  him  a  far  higher  enjoyment  of  it  than 
the  wicked  can  possibly  have  with  all  their  unsanctificd  possessions. 
But  then  this  is  a  bliss  which  depends  not  upon  the  smiles  of  mortals ; 
this  is  within  the  reach  of  the  poor  man,  as  well  as  the  rich  man  ;  thia 
is  within  reach  of  the  man  in  the  mud-walled  cottage,  as  well  as  in  the 
most  splendid  mansion.  Yes,  for  it  comes  from  God  ;  and  God  "  will 
look  to  this  man,  that  is  poor  and  of  a  contrite  spirit,  and  that  trem- 
bleth  at  his  Word."  And  were  we  to  examine  every  case,  perhaps 
we  should  find  a  great  deal  more  happiness  in  the  humble  walks  of 
life  —  certainly  we  should  where  there  is  piety  —  than  in  the  higher 
-walks,  where  piety  is  not  found.  And  then  there  is  something  in  this 
that  is  so  satisfactory,  something  that  leaves  no  sting  behind,  something 
that  will  bear  reflection,  something  that  never  palls  upon  the  senses, 
something  that  makes  us,  the  more  we  enjoy,  the  more  we  would 
enjoy  —  and  the  more  we  would  enjoy,  the  more  we  may  enjoy.  Oh  ! 
how  greatly  does  it  transcend  every  thing  of  an  earthly  nature  !  Why 
did  the  clusters  of  the  grapes  of  Canaan  excel  the  onions  and  garlics 
of  Egypt  ?  not  more  than  the  happiness  of  religion  excels  all  earthly 
bliss.  Does  the  transparent  stream  excel  the  vile,  stagnant  pool?  and 
does  the  rich  and  delicious  kernel  excel  the  hard  and  empty  shell  ?  not 
more  than  the  happiness  of  God's  people  excels  all  other  kinds  of 
enjoyment.  And,  finally,  does  the  sun,  in  the  zenith  of  his  splendor, 
outshine  the  feeble  glow  worm  ?  not  more  than  the  transcendent  happi- 
ness of  religion  rises  above  all  earthly  happiness. 

Mark,  again,  the  eminence  of  this  happiness  by  the  consideration  that 
it  is  ever  j^resent  in  its  fruition.  I  remember  the  celebrated  Hannah 
Mooro,  (who  deserved  well  of  her  country,  and  whose  works  will  live 
and  be  read  while  the  English  language  is  spoken  or  read,)  in  some  of 
her  valuable  works  has  this  remark  —  "  This  world's  happiness  is  always 
in  the  future  tense."  True  ;  it  has  no  past  tense,  it  has  no  present 
tense.  The  mere  man  of  this  world,  who  never  had  religion,  cannot 
honestly  say,  "  At  such  a  time  I  ivas  positively  happy !  "  The  man  of 
the  world,  that  knows  nothing  of  religion,  cannot  now  say,  "  I  am 
happy  !  "  Oh  !  no,  it  is  always  in  the  future  tense  ;  so  that  those  two 
lines,  that  have  been  so  often  reprobated  from  the  pulpit  and  the  press, 
are  true,  after  all,  in  the  proper  appHcation  of  them  — 

/     "  Hope  springs  eternal  in  the  human  hreast ; 
Man  never  is,  but  always  to  be  blessed." 

"  Always  to  he  blest."  The  man  who  thinks  that  the  gratification 
of  his  palate  will  make  him  hapj^y,  if  you  go  to  him  and  ask,  "  when 
was  it  so  ?  "     "  Oh  !  it  is  not  what  I  have  already  received,  but  it  is 


THE   HAPPY  MAN   A   RELIGIOUS    MAIST.  283 

something  more  exquisite  that  I  expect ;  "  so, that  it  is  "  to  5^."  The 
man  who  looks  to  money  to  make  him  blest  —  wh}^,  now  he  told  you, 
some  years  ago,  that  if  he  could  but  realize  a  certain  sum,  he  would 
retire  from  the  toils  of  his  business  or  his  profession,  and  go  and  live 
in  the  country,  and  be  happy  the  rest  of  his  days  ;  well,  he  has  realized 
a  much  larger  sum,  and  you  go  and  ask  him,  "  are  you  happy  ?  "  ah ! 
the  truth  comes  out  again ;  he  tells  you,  a  neighbor  of  his  has  been 
more  successful  than  him,  and  realized  almost  twice  as  much  as  he  has, 
and  he  will  not  be  happy  till  he  has  as  much  ;  so  that  it  is  always  "  to 
he."  And  then  go  again  to  the  man  who  told  you  some  time  ago,  that 
if  he  could  but  obtain  this  world's  honor,  and  especially  if  he  could  be 
ennobled  —  if  he  could  get  a  title  —  it  would  be  the  consummation  of 
his  happiness  ;  well,  this  man  actually  succeeds  ;  he  goes  from  one  post 
to  another,  and  pushes  his  way  in  society,  till  at  last  he  obtains  a  title  ; 
now  you  go  to  him  —  if  you  can  get  an  introduction  to  him  you  go  to 
him —  and  you  address  him  by  his  title,  and  you  say,  "  My  lord,  you 
told  me,  at  such  a  time,  if  you  could  but  get  a  title,  jou  should  be 
happy  ;  and  now  you  have  got  it,  I  am  come  on  purpose  to  know  whether 
it  has  made  you  happy  ;  "  ah  !  he  falters  too,  and  he  says,  "  why,  no,  I 
cannot  say  I  am  happy  at  present ;  for  a  neighbor  of  mine  has  a  higher 
title,  and  another  has  a  string  of  titles  —  and  I  cannot  be  happy  till  I 
rise  as  high  as  them  ;  "  so  that  you  see  again  — 

!Man  never  is,  but  ahvaj-'s  to  he  blest.  i 

But,  thank  God,  it  is  not  so  with  all.  No,  no  ;  the  happiness  of 
God's  people  has  a  present  tense,  and  a  past,  as  well  as  a  future.  Oh ! 
yes,  the  text  is  in  the  present  tense  ;  "  happy  is  the  people  that  is  in 
such  a  case :  yea,  happy  "  —  not  shall  be,  or  hope  to  be,  but  —  "  happy 
is  that  people,  whose  God  is  the  Lord."  Already  does  the  favor  of 
God  beam  upon  their  spirits,  and  diffuse  essential  joy  through  their 
souls.  Already  does  "  the  peace  that  passeth  understanding,"  overflow 
their  bosoms.  Already  is  "  the 'love  of  God  shed  abroad  in  their  hearts, 
by  the  Holy  Ghost  given  unto  them."  Already  they  rejoice  in  the 
prospect  of  everlasting  life. 

And  then  let  me  say,  too,  that  this  happiness  is  purifying  in  its  influ- 
ence and  tendency.  Not  so  those  things  called  bliss,  which  are  incon- 
sistent with  religion  and  holiness.  All  unhallowed  pleasures  have  a 
ruinous  tendency  ;  they  enervate  the  human  intellect,  they  dim  the  eye 
of  the  understanding,  they  vitiate  and  deprave  the  heart ;  they  leave  a 
deadly  sting  behind ;  the  cup  may  be  painted  and  its  contents  may 
appear  inviting,  but,  depend  upon  it,  there  is  poison  in  the  cup,  if  it  be 
inconsistent  with  holiness.     Oh  I  but  the  pleasures  of  religion  do  not 


284  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

contract  the  intellectual  powers,  they  do  not  cloud  the  understanding, 
they  do  not  deprave  the  heart.  These  pleasures  are  holy,  and  they 
tend  to  make  us  holy  ;  this  happiness  is  spiritual,  and  it  tends  to  make 
us  spiritual.     This  happiness  comes  from  God,  and  it  leads  to  God. 

And  here  let  me  say  one  word,  my  dear  friends.  Value  this  happi- 
ness, not  merely  for  its  own  sake,  because  it  is  delightful  to  enjoy  ;  but 
value  it  because  of  its  hallowing  tendency  and  effect.  All  the  pleasures 
that  are  to  be  found  in  religion  are  designed  and  calculated  to  make  us 
more  spiritual  and  heavenly,  more  dead  to  this  world,  and  alive  to  that 
which  is  to  come.  See  to  it,  then,  that  while  you  behold  the  glory  of 
the  Lord  beaming  from  the  face  of  the  Redeemer,  you  catch  the 
impression  and  are  "  changed  into  the  same  image,  from  glory  to  glory, 
even  as  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord." 

And  then,  here  is  another  circumstance  ;  this  pleasure  —  tJiis  liappi- 
ness  —  is  unending — an  unending  bliss.  It  not  only  is  to  continue 
with  us,  while  we  are  in  this  world,  but  it  is  to  go  with  us  through  the 
vale  of  death,  and  it  is  to  be  enjoyed  and  possessed  by  us  for  ever  and 
'Y  ever.  Now  "  the  pleasures  of  sin  "  (make  the  most  of  them)  are  but 
(  "  for  a  season."  And  that  season,  alas  !  how  short,  and  how  uncertain ! 
Longer  than  this  short  life  they  cannot  last ;  up  to  its  final  close,  they 
seldom,  if  ever,  remain.  Behold  the  man  whom  this  world  has  called 
happy.  Ah !  he  called  his  wish,  and  it  came ;  and  then  he  called 
another,  and  another,  and  they  came,  and  he  lived  according  to  the 
sight  of  his  eyes,  and  according  to  the  desire  of  his  heart,  and  he  went 
on  through  scenes  of  sensuality  for  a  few  years  ;  but  it  is  over  now  ;  his 
poor  body  is  wasted  by  excessive  intemperance,  he  is  dragging  about 
with  him  an  emaciated  frame,  and  his  angry  conscience,  like  a  spectre, 
meets  him  at  every  turn,  and  stares  him  in  the  face,  and  makes  his 
guilty  blood  creep  through  his  veins  —  while  his  irritated  passions, 
which  can  no  longer  be  gratified,  gnaw  his  very  soul.  And  is  this  the 
consummation  of  this  world's  happiness  ?  "  Oh,  m}^  soul,  come  not 
thou  into  their  secret ;  "  with  such  men,  "  mine  honor,  be  not  thou 
united."  But  then  the  happiness  of  religion,  being  pure  and  undefiled, 
is  "  incorruptible  and  fadeth  not  away."  Here  is  a  happiness  that  goes 
with  us  through  the  varied  scenes  of  life  ;  here  is  a  happiness  that  the 
rough  hand  of  death  cannot  strip  us  of.  Death  calls  upon  the  man  of 
this  world  to  strip  and  die,  and  this  world  can  take  away  what  it  gave  ; 
but  the  world  did  not  give  the  good  man  his  happiness  —  it  came  from 
God ;  and  the  world  cannot  take  it  away,  and  death  cannot  take  it 
away.  And  it  sometimes  happens,  that  his  happiness  at  that  hour  rises 
higher  than  ever.  Oh!  the  joy  of  the  Christian  is  a  joy  which  death 
increases,  and  eternity  crowns.     Then  he  Avill  drink,  and  be  satisfied  ; 


THE   UAPPY   MAN   A   RELIGIOUS   MAN.  285 

he  will  have  access  to  rivers  of  pleasure  at  God's  right  hand  for  ever- 
more, where  there  will  he  all  sunshine,  and  no  cloud  or  storm  ;  where 
there  will  be  a  day  that  shall  never  be  followed  by  a  night,  where  the 
sun  shall  rise  that  shall  never  set,  and  where  "  the  days  of  mourning 
shall  be  ended." 

"  0  ye  blest  scenes  of  pennanent  delight, 

Full,  above  measure  I  lasting  beyond  bound  ! 

A  perpetuity  of  bliss  is  bliss. 

Could  you,  so  rich  in  rapture,  fear  an  end. 

That  ghastly  thought  would  drink  up  all  your  joy. 

And  quite  unparadise  the  realms  of  light." 

"Why,  the  very  thought  would  spread  a  gloom  through  the  celestial 
mansions,  and  cover  all  heaven  with  sackcloth.  But  no  ;  there  is  no 
end ;  there  is  no  thought,  there  is  no  dread  of  an  end.  In  short,  there 
is  futurity  for  ever  future  —  life,  happiness,  heaven  beginning  still 
where  computation  ends. 

II.  What,  then,  are  the  objections  which  are  urged  to  the 
DOCTRINE,  which  my  text  contains,  and  which  I  have  endeavored  to 
state  ? 

1.  Why,  some  have  said,  in  the  first  place,  "  We  remember  to  have 
heard  you,  when  you  selected  another  text,  insist  upon  it  that  a  rehgi- 
ous  course  begins  with  sorrow  and  grief  and  mourning ;  and  we  have 
heard  you  quote  such  texts  as  this  :  "  Be  afflicted,  and  mourn  and  weep ; 
let  your  laughter  be  turned  to  mourning,  and  your  joy  to  heaviness  ;  " 
where,  then,  is  this  happiness  in  religion,  of  which  you  speak  ?  " 

Why,  my  friends,  that,  in  the  commencement  of  a  rehgious  course, 
there  must  be  a  "  sorrow  after  a  godly  sort,"  we  not  only  admit,  but 
for  this  we  must  strongly  and  strenuously  contend  ;  but  it  follows  not 
from  this,  that  a  religious  life  is  not  a  happy  one.  For,  let  me  reply  to 
tliis  in  the  first  place,  that,  even  in  this  bruisedness  of  spirit,  this  contri- 
tion of  heart,  and  these  prayers  and  tears  and  supplications,  there  is  a 
relief,  there  is  a  satisfaction,  far  exceeding  anything  that  can  be  found 
in  a  course  of  sin  and  intemperance  ;  why,  there  are  tears  that  dehght, 
there  are  sighs  that  waft  to  heaven ;  and  Jesus  Christ  has  said, 
"Blessed"  —  not  Avretched — "are  they  that  mourn."  There  is  a 
blessedness  even  in  mourning  !  there  is  such  a  thing  as  "  the  joy  of 
grief."  And  let  me  reply  to  this,  secondly,  by  saying,  that  this  peni- 
tent is  not  mourning  and  weeping  because  he  has  religion,  but  because 
he  wants  it ;  he  does  not  mourn  and  weep  because  he  finds  the  favor  of 
God,  but  because  he  feels  himself  under  the  sentence  of  the  law  of 
God,  and  knows  that  the  sentence  must  be  averted  ;  he  does  not  mourn 
and  weep  because  he  loves  God,  but  because  he  does  not  love  God,  and 


286  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

cannot  be  happy  till  lie  does  love  him.  And  then  let  me  reply  to  this, 
thirdly,  by  saying.  Let  this  man  continue  to  seek,  and  continue  to  ask, 
and  continue  to  knock,  and  let  him  cry  at  mercy's  door  by  faith  and 
prayer ;  and,  depend  upon  it,  the  door  ^Yill  be  opened,  and  depend  upon 
it,  God,  whom  he  seeks,  will  come  to  his  soul,  and  he  will  turn  his 
mourning  into  joy,  and  his  midnight  into  day.  The  Lord  will  appoint 
to  these  mourners  in  Zion  "  beauty  for  ashes,  the  oil  of  joy  for  mourn- 
ing, the  garment  of  praise  for  the  spirit  of  heaviness ;  "  for  "  they  that 
sow  in  tears  shall  reap  in  joy."  So  that  we  find  it  true,  after  all, 
"  Happy  is  that  people  whose  God  is  the  Lord." 

2.  But  then  it  is  urged,  again,  from  another  quarter,  "  How  can  a 
religious  life  be  a  happy  one,  when  you  sometimes  tell  us  of  the 
restraints  of  religion,  and  of  the  arduous  duties  of  religion  ;  how,  then, 
is  happiness  consistent  with  all  this  ?  " 

Restraints  of  religion  !  austerities  of  religion !  sacrifices  of  religion  ! 
Let  me  say  to  the  mere  man  of  this  world,  it  is  with  an  ill  grace  that 
he  brings  forward  this  objection ;  it  is  with  an  ill  grace  that 
he  says  a  word  upon  the  subject ;  why,  who  does  not  know  what  kind 
of  life  he  is  living  —  a  life  ten  thousand  times  more  severe  ?  What 
mean  all  those  sacrifices  of  time,  and  sacrifices  of  property,  and  sacri- 
fices of  health,  he  is  making  in  the  way  of  the  god  he  serves  ?  what 
mean  all  those  days  of  hurry  and  confusion  ?  ah !  and  what  mean  all 
those  sleepless  nights,  not  only  of  folly,  but  of  dissipation  ?  I  say  that 
it  is  with  an  ill  grace  that  a  man  of  the  world,  who  is  devoted  to  its 
follies  and  its  vanities,  says  a  word  about  the  restraints  of  religion. 
But  admitted  religion  does  impose  restraints  upon  man  ;  but  from  what 
does  it  restrain  him  ?  — from  sin.  Its  restraints  are  all  salutary.  It 
forbids  nothing  but  what,  if  pursued,  would  be  a  curse  to  the  man,  and 
not  a  blessing.  It  forbids  sin  under  all  its  forms  and  modifications,  and 
religion  does  require  that  a  man  be  "  temperate  in  all  things."  And  I 
put  it  to  the  good  sense  of  this  assembly,  which  has  the  most  enjoyment 

—  the  man  that  eats  and  drinks  till  his  very  indulgences  pall  upon  the 
sense,  and  fill  him  with  disgust  —  or  the  man  who  "  lets  his  moderation 
be  known  unto  all  men  ? "  Common  sense  knows  very  well  how  to 
answer  this  question. 

Admitted  again  —  duties  of  religion,  duties  of  piety,  duties  of  justice, 
duties  of  charity.  But  then  does  it  follow,  that  the  people  of  God  are 
not  happy  ?  Why,  they  have  to  read  the  Bible  ;  does  that  make  them 
unhappy  ?  oh  !  how  I  "  love  thy  law  !  "  "  it  is  sweeter  to  me  than 
honey  and  the  honey-comb  ; "  is  that  the  way  a  man  is  made  unhappy 

—  when  he  tastes  the  honey  dropping  from  the  comb  ?  A  good  man 
has  to  pray  to  God  ;  does  that  make  him  unhappy  ?   Oh !  prayer  opens 


THE    IIAl'PY    MAX   A   IIELIGIOUS    MAX.  287 

heaven,  and  lets  tlie  stream  of  mercy  do-\vn.  A  good  man  has  to 
worship  God  with  his  family ;  and  docs  that  make  him  unhappy  ? 
"What !  when  the  God  he  loves  smiles  upon  him,  and  the  fire  from  above 
comes  down  to  kindle  the  sacrifice  ?  A  good  man  has  to  reverence  the 
Sabbath  ;  does  that  make  him  unhappy  ?  Oh  !  he  counts  "  the  Sabbath 
a  delight,  holy  of  the  Lord  and  honorable."  A  good  man  has  to  go  to 
the  sanctuary  ;  does  that  make  him  unhappy?  "Lord,  I  have  loved 
the  habitation  of  thy  house,  and  the  place  where  thine  honor  dwelleth." 
A  miserable  infidel,  with  his  book  in  his  hand,  sat  opposite  to  me  in 
Lincolnshire,  the  other  day,  and  there  he  was  reading  a  book,  purport- 
ing to  be  written  and  published  by  a  German,  and  he  read  some 
passages  to  this  efiect  —  that  we  English  people  are  the  most  joyless, 
mopish  people  on  earth,  and  that  even  the  little  birds  we  shut  up  in  a 
dark  room,  lest  they  should  profane  the  Sabbath  by  singing,  and  that 
we  go  to  church,  not  once,  but  even  twice,  and  many  three  times  in 
the  day,  and  make  it  a  day  of  gloom  and  wretchedness.  Why,  I  said, 
in  the  first  place,  it  is  not  true  ;  we  do  not  shut  little  birds  up,  for  fear 
they  should  profane  the  Sabbath  by  singing.  In  the  second  place,  you 
and  your  author  talk  about  things  you  do  not  know  the  nature  of ;  it  is 
true  that  Ave  go  to  places  of  worship,  but  we  do  not  go  merely  because 
it  is  our  duty,  but  we  go  also  because  it  is  a  pleasure  and  delight ;  and 
those  very  men  that  you  and  your  author  describe  as  gloomy  and 
joyless  —  why  they  are  the  happiest  men  that  breathe. 

Duties  of  justice,  too  ;  and  which  is  the  happy  man  —  he  that  always 
makes  that  golden  rule  of  love  the  rule  of  his  actions,  "  As  ye  would 
that  men  should  do  to  you,  do  ye  even  so  to  them  "  —  or  he  that  is 
overreaching  and  taking  advantage  wherever  he  can,  taking  advantage 
of  the  ignorance,  the  weakness,  or  the  necessity  of  his  fellow-creatures  ? 
Which  of  the  two  is  a  happy  man,  I  need  not  tell  you.  And  then, 
again,  duties  of  mercy  —  duties  of  charity.  Why,  a  good  man  is  ,to 
show  favor  and  lend,  a  good  man  is  to  be  merciful  after  his  power,  and 
Christian  people  are  "  to  visit  the  fatherless  and  widows  in  their 
afiiictiun  ;  "  what,  does  this  make  them  unhappy?  Little  do  those  know 
of  the  joys  of  benevolence,  and  the  pleasure  connected  with  the  exer- 
cise of  the  various  affections  of  the  human  heart,  who  would  represent 
such  persons  as  unhappy.  Wlien  was  it  you  visited  the  widow  or  the 
fatherless,  or  some  sad  fellow-creature  in  a  state  of  wretchedness,  and 
had  it  in  your  power  to  afford  relief  ?  Why,  when  you  saw  the  uplifted 
eye  suffused  with  tears,  and  when  you  heard  the  expressions  of  grati- 
tude, first  to  God  for  disposing  you  thus  to  act,  and  then  to  you  as  the 
instrument  of  relief —  I  put  it  to  you,  oh  !  what  a  sweet  satisfaction, 
that  you  have  had  the  power  and  the  grace,  the  means  and  the  dispo- 


288  THE   EXGLISH   PULPIT. 

sition,  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  and  the  woe  of  your  fellow-creatures! 
Why,  then,  I  say,  all  these,  instead  of  hindering  our  bliss,  greatly 
augment  the  amount,  and  still  the  text  is  true  — "  Happy  is  that 
people,  whose  God  is  the  Lord." 

3.  But  then,  it  is  urged  again  —  Religion  sometimes  exposes  a  man 
to  trials,  and  afflictions,  and  persecutions,  and  sometimes  even  to  death; 
where  then  is  the  happiness  of  "  the  people  whose  God  is  the  Lord  ?  " 

My  dear  friends,  told  I  you  not,  sometime  ago,  in  this  discourse,  that 
this  is  a  happiness  which  depends  not  either  upon  the  smiles  of  the 
world,  or  the  frowns  of  men  ?  I  admit  a  good  man  may  have  "  his. 
name  cast  out  as  evil ;  "  I  admit  that  "  all  manner  of  evil  may  be  said 
of  him  "  (but  it  is  "  falsely  "  said  of  him,  or  he  is  not  a  good  man,) 
"  for  the  Lord's  sake  ;  "  but  then  he  is  not  unhappy  for  this  ;  no, 
"  rejoice  and  be  exceeding  glad,"  the  Spirit  of  God  and  6f  glory  is 
resting  upon  you.  I  admit  a  good  man  may  be  persecuted  ;  but  then 
"  blessed  are  ye,  when  men  shall  persecute  you,  for  so  persecuted  they 
the  prophets  before  you."  Oh !  you  are  treading  in  the  right  path  ; 
you  are  walking  in  the  high  way,  in  which  kings,  and  confessors,  and 
righteous  men  went  before  you.  Push  your  objection  to  its  utmost 
hmit ;  let  a  pious  man  be  incarcerated  in  a  dungeon,  and  let  him  be 
beaten,  and  let  his  feet  be  made  fast  in  the  stocks  ;  what  then  ?  is  he 
unhappy  ?  answer  me  Paul  and  Silas,  blessing  God ;  they  had  been 
preaching  the  good  news  of  the  kingdom,  and  they  had  been  beaten, 
and  put  in  prison,  and  their  feet  were  made  fast  in  the  stDcks,  and  it 
was  midnight  —  and  what  then  ?  at  midnight  "  Paul  and  Silas  prayed  " 
—  ah!  but  they  did  more  than  that  —  "at  midnight  Paul  and  Silas 
prayed,  and  sang  praises  to  God."  Then  they  were  happy  ;  they  were 
so  happy  they  could  not  but  sing  the  praises  of  God,  even  in  a  dungeon ; 
and  though  it  was  midnight,  perhaps  it  was  the  happiest  hour  they  ever 
spent,  up  to  that  period. 

I  said,  push  your  objection  to  its  utmost  extent ;  let  the  good  man 
be  called  to  suffer  martyrdom  in  the  cause  of  Jesus  ;  what  then  ?  Oh ! 
he  is  not  unhappy.  I  remember  a  case,  where  a  man  whom  I  could 
name,  a  martyr  to  the  truth,  said  Avhile  the  flames  were  consuming  his 
body,  "  I  feel  no  pain,  this  to  me  is  a  bed  of  roses."  Perhaps  the 
philosophy  of  the  case  is  this  —  the  sensations  of  Divine  love  were  so 
powerful  in  the  man's  soul,  as  to  overpower  the  sensation  of  pain.  So 
that  living  or  dying,  "  happy  is  that  people  whose  God  is  the  Lord." 

4.'' However  it  is  urged  again,  (and  this  is  the  last  objection  that  I 
will  state,)  "  I  have  made  the  trial,  and  I  have  not  found  it  so." 

Now,  this  objection  really  appears  plausible  —  "I  have  made  the 
trial,  and  I  have  not  found  it  so."     You  have  made  the  trial.     And 


THE   HAPPY   MAN   A   RELIftlOUS   MAN.  289 

let  me  ask,  then,  Who  are  you,  that  have  made  the  trial  ?  ^ThJ,  ot 
course,  3'ou  say,  you  are  a  Christian.  And  what  evidence  have  you  to 
give  that  you  are  a  Christian  ?  Why,  you  bear  a  Christian  name,  your 
name  is  registered  yonder  as  a  Christian ,  and,  moreover,  you  have 
been  the  subject  of  a  Christian  ordinance,  you  were  recognized  in  the 
rite  of  water  baptism  ;  and,  moreover,  you  have  attended  to  certain 
Christian  duties,  you  have  read  the  Scriptures  —  a  Christian  duty,  you 
have  attended  a  place  of  worship  —  a  Christian  duty,  you  have  (occa- 
sionally at  least)  approached  the  table  of  the  Lord  —  a  Christian  duty 
to  do  so  regularly,  and  you  sometimes  give  a  portion  of  your  property 
to  maintain  the  cause  of  God  at  home,  or  send  the  gospel  abroad  among 
heathen  nations  —  Christian  duties  these.  Well,  what  more?  Ah! 
but  if  you  falter,  I  must  speak  out,  AVhat !  do  you  think  nobody 
knows  what  more  ?  Ah  !  to-night  at  the  house  of  God  —  and  to-morrow 
night  yonder  at  the  contaminating  house  of  Rimmon  ;  in  the  morning 
associating  with  those  who  keep  holy-day  —  but,  before  noon  or  night, 
commingling  with  those  whose  conversation  savors  not  of  religion,  and 
of  the  things  of  God  ;  to-daj'  engaged  in  religious  exercises  —  and 
to-morrow  pursuing  worldly  vanities ;  a  wordly-minded  Christian,  a 
pleasure-taking  Christian,  a  sporting  Christian,  a  wine-bibbing  Christian. 
Oh  !  I  wonder  not  that  t/our  Christianity  did  not  make  you  happy  ;  it 
could  not.  How  can  the  most  sovereign  specific  restore  a  diseased  man 
to  health  and  soundness,  if  all  the  while  he  will  be  eagerly  swallowing 
large  portions  of  contrary  aliment,  which  tend  directly  to  irritate  and 
feed  the  disease.  It  cannot  be.  And  let  me  say  to  that  man.  Whoever 
thou  art,  God  has  made  no  half-engagement  with  either  thee  or  me. 
He  has  not  said  he  will  make  us  happy  if  we  will  give  half  our  heart 
to  him,  and  the  other  half  to  the  world,  and  if  we  try  to  bring  together 
and  to  unite  what  God  has  put  asunder.  "  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and 
Mammon."  Oh  !  we  must  come  to  a  decision.  "  Who  is  on  the 
Lord's  side  ?"  The  religion  of  the  Bible  will  not,  and  cannot  make 
you  happy,  unless  you  give  up  every  thing  inconsistent  with  it.  There 
must  be  the  abandonment  of  all  sin.  Give  up  sin,  or  God  will  give  up 
you.  You  must  part  with  all,  if  you  would  find  all.  Oh  !  abandon  all 
sin ;  and  not  only  renounce  sin,  but  renounce  all  dependence  upon  your 
virtues,  and  come,  stripped  of  all,  poor,  helpless,  hell-deserving  sinners, 
and  cast  yourselves  upon  the  mercy  of  Jesus  Christ.  Believe  on  him, 
who  died  for  you ;  believe  on  him  who  lives  for  you,  your  advocate 
before  the  throne  ;  God  will  reveal  himself  to  you  in  Jesus  Christ,  as 
your  God,  and  you  shall  know  him,  and  you  shall  love  him,  and  you 
shall  delight  in  him,  and,  as  sure  as  God  is  true,  and  as  sure  as  this  is 
hia  book,  you  shall  be  happy. 


290  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

And  then,  realizing  all  this  happiness  yourselves,  you  will  be 
concerned  that  others  should  be  as  happy  as  you  are,  that  others  should 
be  as  blessed  as  you  are,  that  others  should  enjoy  the  security  you 
enjoy.  And  I  know  not  the  man  that  enjoys  religion  himself,  and  that 
wishes  to  keep  religion  to  himself.  What !  a  monopoly  in  religion  ;  the 
worst  monopoly  of  all,  the  most  unnatural  monopoly  of  all.  Why, 
religion  is  not  weakened  by  its  diffusion.  The  sun  in  the  firmament  of 
heaven,  is  not  less  valuable  to  me,  because  it  gives  Hght  to  you.  No, 
my  friends  ;  and  religion  is  not  less  a  treasure  to  me,  because  it  is  a 
treasure  to  you.  If  there  be  any  pleasure  at  all,  in  giving  we  receive, 
and  in  blessing  we  are  blessed. 

You  are  come  here  this  evening  under  the  influence  of  religion.  It 
would  be  an  affectation  in  this  heart  of  mine,  which  I  should  utterly 
despise,  were  I  capable  of  seeming  to  be  indifferent  to  the  spectacle 
now  displayed  in  this  house  —  a  week-day  evening,  and  such  a  crowd 
of  blood-bought  souls  before  me.  It  is  a  rich  rccompence  for  the  toils 
of  the  past  night.  For  I  was  in  the  town  of  Leeds  at  the  same 
hour,  last  night,  that  I  entered  this  place  of  worship  for  this  service  ; 
and  some  might  suppose  that  having  attended  a  public  meeting  there 
last  evening,  I  was  more  fit  for  some  other  place  than  where  I  now  am, 
on  arriving  in  your  metropolis  this  evening.  But  it  is  all  too  httle  in 
the  service  of  God.  Besides,  we  need  only  come  to  the  fire  in  order 
to  be  warmed ;  and  we  need  only  meet  with  those  that  love  our  Savior 
in  order  to  be  refreshed ;  "  iron  sharpeneth  iron,  and  a  man  the  coun- 
tenance ofhis  friend."  If  the  Lord  be  pleased  to  use  even  physical 
strength,  (that  is  his  gift,  and  we  must  not  boast  as  if  we  had  not 
received  it;  "  let  not  the  strong  man  glory  in  his  strength  ;  ")  we  owe 
our  blessed  master  all ;  oh  !  to  him  our  more  than  all  is  due.  Permit 
me  to  say,  however,  I  am  refreshed  in  meeting  you  on  this  occasion  in 
this  sanctuary. 

The  Trustees  of  this  place  make  their  respectful  annual  appeal  to 
you.  You  are  aware  that  they  have  taken  the  whole  responsibihty, 
and  without  having  any  property  in  the  place  themselves,  and  that  they 
have  done  so  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  good  of  souls.  They  have 
become  the  guardians  of  the  place,  according  to  the  provisions  of  the 
Trust,  for  the  benefit  of  the  Society  worshipping  here,  while  bricks, 
and  stones,  and  timber,  shall  cleave  together.  Then  if  they  have  done 
this,  and  from  these  motives,  they  ought  to  be  encouraged.  I  think 
80  ;  and  you  think  so,  and  your  conduct  will  say  the  same  thing  this 
evening.  I  know  to  whom  I  speak ;  and  I  will  not  detain  you  longer, 
as  though  to  this  good  work  you  were  reluctant.  Let  the  fire  of  love 
glow  in  your  bosoms,  and  then  it  will  speak  to  your  hearts,  and  your 


COME   AND    SEE   JESUS.  291 

hearts  "will  speak  to  your  hands,  and  your  hands,  thus  spoken  to,  will 
know  where  to  go,  and  what  to  do,  (for  the  heart  is  intimately 
connected  with  the  hand,)  and  then  we  shall  have  a  noble  collection, 
and  glory  will  redound  to  the  name  of  the  Lord 


SERMON   XXIV. 

AN     ADDRESS     TO     CHILDREN. 
BY  REV.  A.    FLETCHER,  D.  D. 

"  Sir,  we  •would  see  Jesus." — .Johx  xii.  21. 

I  DO  not  know  if  there  is  a  child  present,  who  has  ever  read  the 
whole  of  the  Bible,  from  the  first  verse  of  Genesis  to  the  last  verse  of 
Revelation.  It  is  probable  some  of  you  may  have  done  so  ;  I  cannot 
tell  but  some  hundreds  of  you  may.  Now  you  know,  my  dear  young 
friends,  that  in  the  Bible  there  is  an  astonishing  number  of  names,  both 
in  the  Old  Testament  and  in  the  New.  But  I  ask  you,  did  you  ever 
meet  in  the  whole  Bible  so  beautiful  a  name  as  that  of  Jesus  ?  J  never 
did.  You  may  read  the  whole  of  the  Bible  through,  and  you  will  not 
find  in  it  a  lovelier,  a  sweeter,  a  more  blessed,  a  more  comforting  name, 
than  the  name  of  Jesus. 

Do  you  know  the  meaning  of  the  name  Jesus  ?  It  signifies  a  Savior. 
It  is  a  Hebrew  name,  and  it  corresponds  with  the  name  Joshua  in  the 
Old  Testament.  You  recollect  the  noble  captain  of  the  Lord's  host 
—  captain  Joshua.  He  was  a  wonderful  man,  a  very  holy  man  as  well 
as  a  great  captain  and  a  great  general,  and  his  name  Joshua  signifies  a 
Savior  ;  he  got  the  name  because  he  led  the  children  of  Israel  through 
the  river  Jordan  into  the  land  of  Canaan,  and  conducted  them  in  all 
their  battles,  and  succeeded  in  getting  possession  of  the  land,  and 
delivered  it  up  to  the  Israelites  ;  therefore  he  was  called  Joshua,  because 
he  was  their  Savior.  Now  this  name  is  given  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
because  he  is  a  Savior.  Joshua  was  a  great  savior ;  but  Christ  is  a 
Savior  infinitely  greater.  Joshua  saved  the  Israelites  from  temporal 
enemies  ;  but  our  Jesus  saves  his  people  from  spiritual  enemies.  Joshua 
saved  the  children  of  Israel  from  the  giants  —  the  Anakim,  as  they 
called  them  ;  great  tall  men,  of  such  extraordinary  size,  that  if  one  of 
them  stood  in  this  middle  aisle,  his  head  would  be  as  high  as  that  clock 


292  THE    EXGLISn    rULPIT. 

in  front  of  the  gallery  ;  Joshua  fought  with  them,  and  destroyed  them. 
But  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  delivers  his  people  from  three  greater  giants ; 
their  names  are  —  Sin  —  Satan  —  and  the  World.  And  Jesus  is  such 
a  mighty  Savior  that  he  dehvers  from  hell.  Joshua  led  the  children 
of  Israel  to  a  most  beautiful  country  called  Canaan,  the  loveliest  spot 
upon  the  face  of  the  earth  ;  oh !  it  was  beautiful  —  beautiful  for  its 
mountains  and  its  lovely  green  hills  and  its  valleys  and  its  meadows  and 
plains,  beautiful  for  its  lakes  and  its  streams  and  its  rivers,  beautiful 
for  its  noble  cities,  and  the  chief  of  them  was  called  Jerusalem  ;  but 
Christ  gives  to  his  people,  and  to  little  children  that  love  him,  a  far 
better  land  than  Canaan  ;  he  gives  them  the  heavenly  Canaan,  he  gives 
them  heaven,  he  gives  them  the  heaven  of  heavens  — 

"  the  land  of  pure  delight, 


Where  saints  imniortal  reign ; 
Infinite  day  excludes  the  night, 
And  pleasures  banish  pain." 

Now,  my  dear  young  friends,  I  have "  to  ask  you  this  question  —  a 
very  serious  one,  but  a  very  plain  one  —  and  I  ask  all  the  teachers  too : 
do  you  love  the  name  of  Jesus  ?  Every  pious  child  does.  You  that 
have  loving  fathers  and  mothers,  do  not  you  love  the  name  Father,  and 
the  name  Mother  ?  —  and  the  name  Sister,  and  the  name  Brother,  you 
that  have  loving  brothers  and  sisters  ?  —  and  the  name  Minister,  and 
the  name  Teacher,  you  that  have  loving  ministers  and  loving  teachers  ? 
The  very  names  are  pleasant  to  your  ears.  But  if  you  are  the  chil- 
dren of  God,  the  name  of  Jesus  will  be  more  delightful  to  your  ear 
than  any  of  these,  or  the  name  of  the  nearest  and  the  dearest  friend 
on  earth.  Oh !  I  hope  that  a  great  many  of  these  dear  httle  childreu 
can  join  with  their  hearts  in  the  following  beautiful  lines  : 

"  Jesus  !  I  love  thy  charming  name  ; 
'Tis  pleasure  to  my  ear  ; 
Fain  would  I  sound  it  out  so  loud, 
That  heaven  and  earth  might  hear." 

I  must  explain  to  you,  before  I  enter  upon  the  illustration  of  the 
text,  that  these  words  —  "  Sir,  we  would  see  Jesus"  —  were  spoken 
by  some  Greeks,  who  came  to  Jerusalem  to  observe  the  feast  of  the 
Passover.  They  came  a  great  many  hundred  miles  ;  for  if  you  have 
got  in  your  school  the  map  of  Palestine  or  of  the  journeys  of  Paul, 
you  may  see  that  Greece  is  a  very  long  way  off  from  Jerusalem.  Now 
you  know,  strangers  from  the  country,  when  they  come  to  London,  are 
anxious  to  hear  the  news  that  is  to  be  heard  in  this  great  city  ;  and  one 
day  somebody  told  these  Greeks,  while  they  were  in  Jerusalem,  that 
there  was  a  very  wonderful  person  about,  called  Jesus ;  that  he  opened 


COME    AND    SEE   JESUS.  293 

the  eyes  of  the  blind  and  the  ears  of  tlie  deaf,  made  the  dumb  to  sing 
and  the  lame  to  walk,  and  healed  all  diseases,  and  a  little  while  before 
had  gone  to  a  village  called  Bethany,  (about  the  same  distance  from 
Jerusalem  that  Islington  is  from  London,)  and  there  he  went  to  the 
burying  ground,  where  a  friend  of  his,  of  the  name  of  Lazarus,  had 
been  laid  in  the  grave,  and  he  stood  beside  it  with  the  tears  running 
down  his  cheeks,  and  he  actually  raised  the  dead  man  to  life.  But, 
said  the  Greeks,  is  this  true  ?  we  never  heard  such  wonderful  things. 
Oh !  yes,  says  one,  it  is  true,  for  I  have  a  friend  that  saw  the  very 
man  that  was  raised  from  the  dead.  Perhaps  one  comes  up  at  the 
time  —  a  most  respectable  man,  of  excellent  character  and  piety,  and 
says,  I  saw  the  man  yesterday  ;  I  went  to  his  house  to  see  him,  and 
there  was  a  crowd  of  people  round  the  door,  and  at  last  he  came  out 
and  showed  himself.  Oh !  said  the  Greeks,  we  should  like  to  see  this 
Jesus  ;  where  can  we  get  a  sight  of  the  performer  of  these  mighty 
miracles  ?  Then  there  was  just  passing  by  a  plain,  decent  looking 
man,  and  some  one  said  — Do  you  see  that  man  ?  that  is  Philip,  one 
of  his  disciples.  Oh !  said  the  Greeks,  let  us  go  and  ask  him ;  and 
they  went  up  to  him,  and  said,  "  Sir,  we  would  see  Jesus."  We  are 
not  told  whether  they  did  see  him,  but  there  is  every  probability  that 
they  did  ;  and  I  trust  they  saw  him,  not  only  as  a  wonderful  man,  but 
as  God  and  man  in  one  person.  Oh  !  remember,  little  children,  he 
was  not  only  a  man,  but  he  was  God  and  man  —  man  and  God  ;  his 
humanity  was  not  his  divinity,  nor  was  his  divinity  his  humanity,  but 
both  were  united  in  one  person  —  God  and  man  —  the  Savior  of  lost 
sinners. 

Now,  my  dear  young  friends,  I  want  to  show  you  Jesus  to-day. 
Do  you  not  know  he  is  in  London  ?  A  great  many  saw  him  yester- 
day ;  hundreds,  if  not  thousands.  But  they  did  not  see  his  body  ; 
that  is  in  heaven,  and  they  will  not  see  it  till  they  get  there  ;  they  saw 
him  with  the  eye  of  the  understanding  and  the  eye  of  faith  —  saw 
him  in  his  divinity.  And  the  Lord  Jesus  in  his  divinity  is  here  in  this 
chapel —  the  very  Jesus,  whose  body  was  nailed  to  the  accursed  tree. 
And  I  have  come  this  afternoon  expressly  to  show  you  Jesus ;  that  is 
all  my  business ;  I  have  nothing  else  to  do ;  and  when  I  have  given 
you  a  sight  of  Christ,  I  will  leave  you  in  his  blessed  hands.  Then  you 
and  I  shall  part ;  but  I  hope,  if  we  do  not  meet  again  on  earth,  we 
shall  meet  in  heaven. 

I  hope  you  desire  to  see  him.  If  I  were  to  ask  you.  Do  you  wish 
to  see  Jesus  ?  —  I  hope  you  would  exclaim  with  one  voice,  —  Sir  — 
Minister  —  "  we  would  see  Jesus."  Then,  my  dear  young  friends, 
I  say  to  you,  come  and  see  him.      Come  and  see  Jesus  in  Beth- 


294  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

lehem ;  come  -  and  see  Jesus  in  Egypt ;  come  and  see  Jesus  in 
IsTazareth  ;  come  and  see  Jesus  in  the  temple  ;  come  and  see  Jesus 
on  the  cross ;  come  and  see  Jesus  in  the  grave ;  come  and  see  Jesus 
in  heaven. 

I.  My  beloved  little  children,  come  and  see  Jesus  in  Bethlehem. 

Do  you  know  the  meaning  of  that  word  ?  It  is  a  Hebrew  word, 
and  it  signifies  the  house  of  bread:  heth  the  house,  lehem  of  bread. 
Is  not  that  an  extraordinary  name  to  be  given  to  a  town  ?  I  believe 
that  name  was  given  to  it,  because  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  to  be 
born  in  that  town,  and  he  is  bread.  Little  child,  whenever  you  see  a 
loaf,  remember  that  —  Jesus  is  bread.  When  I  see  the  little  lambs 
going  along  the  street,  I  say  to  myself.  Ah !  Jesus  is  the  lamb  of  God ; 
and  when  you  see  bread,  remember  Jesus  is  bread  —  the  bread  of  life. 
Bethlehem  was  called  by  this  name,  because  he  was  to  be  born  in  it ; 
it  was  prophesied  that  he  should,  many  hundreds  of  years  before,  by 
the  prophet  Malachi,  and  therefore  it  was  even  then  called  Bethlehem 
—  the  house  of  bread  ■ —  and  is  called  so  to  the  present  day. 

Bethlehem  is  six  miles  south  of  Jerusalem  ;  and  it  is  the  town  where 
king  David  was  born,  and  therefore  it  was  also  called  the  City  of  David, 
or  David's  Town.  And  now  let  us,  in  our  meditations,  take  a  walk  to 
Bethlehem,  and  go  and  see  Jesus. 

Suppose  we  have  passed  through  the  gate  of  the  city,  and  got  into 
one  of  the  main  streets  ;  how  shall  we  proceed  ?  If  we  ask  where  it 
is  that  Christ  is  born,  the  person  we  ask  very  likely  cannot  tell.  Per- 
haps some  little  child  present  is  ready  to  say,  Oh  !  surely  Jesus,  the 
Son  of  God,  must  be  born  in  some  great  palace,  more  splendid  and 
magnificent  than  the  queen's  palace,  where  she  receives  her  nobles  and 
her  ministers  of  state.  Ah !  my  young  friend,  that  was  not  the  case  ; 
Jesus  was  not  born  in  a  palace,  though  he  made  the  heavenly  palace. 
Suppose  we  go  to  the  chief  hotel  of  the  town,  and  ask  if  Jesus  is  born 
there  ;  and  the  porter  answers  —  "  No,  I  do  not  know  such  a  person ; 
but  I  did  hear  this  morning  that  a  poor  woman  from  Nazareth  is  lodg- 
ing in  that  stable  with  her  husband,  Joseph,  and  that  a  little  child  has 
been  born  there."  Then  we  enter  the  stable  ;  I  think  I  am  now  walk- 
ing up  to  the  manger;  and  there,  in  the  manger  that  holds  the  food- 
for  the  horses  and  oxen,  while  they  eat  it,  we  see  a  beautiful  babe,  and 
his  name  is  —  Jesus.  And  there  by  his  side  sits  his  mother  Mary  — 
a  humble,  unassuming,  pious  individual,  not  the  fine  lady  represented 
in  Popish  pictures  in  the  shop  windows,  dressed  out  in  fine  clothes,  but 
a  poor  woman  in  coarse  attire,  though  with  meekness  and  gentleness 
and  humility  beaming  in  her  eye.      There  is  Joseph  too.  the  supposed 


COME   AND    SEE   JESUS.  295 

father  of  Christ ;  but  he  was  not  his  father  —  he  was  only  his  protect- 
ing father,  raised  up  to  watch  over  the  dear  child,  during  the  earlj 
years  of  his  existence.  Oh  !  what  a  sight,  my  beloved  young  friends ! 
Jesus,  the  babe,  lying  in  a  manger. 

There  were  a  number  of  shepherds  that  evening  conversing  together, 
and  praying,  and  singing  hymns,  in  a  beautiful  field  in  Palestine,  not 
far  from  Bethlehem  ;  and  on  a  sudden  they  thought  they  heard  music. 
The  sun  was  set,  and  the  stars  were  sparkling  in  the  sky ;  but  said 
one,  "  I  think  I  hear  music  ;  "  and  said  another,  "  I  think  I  hear  it 
too  ;  "  but  so  sweet  as  they  never  heard  before.  Then  it  became 
louder,  till  at  last  there  was  a  full  chorus ;  and  when  they  lifted  up 
their  eyes  to  the  heavens,  they  saw  a  multitude  of  angels,  and  heard 
them  singing  this  hymn  to  the  most  melodious  music  —  "  Glory  to  God 
in  the  highest,  and  on  earth  peace,  good  will  toward  men."  And  one 
of  the  angels  alighted  down  upon  the  earth,  and  came  up  to  them  ; 
the  shepherds  were  all  pale  with  fear,  and  ready  to  faint,  but  the  angel 
said  to  them,  "  Fear  not,  for  behold,  I  bring  you  good  tidings  of 
great  joy." 

"  '  Ye  shepherds  go,'  the  angel  said, 
To  Bethl'em's  city  fly ; 
The  promised  infant,  bom  to-day, 
Doth  in  a  manger  lie." 

There  are  some  venerable  looking  men  going  to  the  stable,  with 
long  robes  and  long  beards,  and  turbans  on  their  heads,  and  parcels  or 
bundles  in  their  hands.  I  do  not  know  how  many  there  were  of  these 
wise  men,  but  they  came  from  a  distant  part  of  the  earth,  and  they 
went  softly  and  gently  up  to  the  manger  ;  and  when  they  saw  the 
babe,  probably  upon  Mary's  knees,  they  fell  down  and  worshipped 
him,  and  they  opened  their  parcels,  and  one  poured  into  Joseph's  lap 
a  quantity  of  silver,  and  another  a  quantity  of  gold,  and  others  frank- 
incense and  myrrh  and  precious  ointment ;  and  in  one  moment  Joseph 
and  Mary  were  put  in  possession  of  great  property.  And  the  reason 
was  this.  Joseph  and  Mary  had  a  long  journey  before  them ;  they 
must  fly  outof  the  town  as  quickly  as  possible,  for  there  is  a  great 
murderer  upon  the  throne  —  murderer  Herod  —  and  he  will  send  his 
men  of  war,  his  blood-hounds  of  death  ;  and  if  Joseph  and  Mary  do 
not  escape  at  once,  his  messengers  will  soon  enter  the  stable,  and 
plunge  the  dagger  into  the  bosom  of  the  infant ;  so  God  sent  these 
wise  men,  with  the  gold  and  the  silver  and  the  spices,  to  defray  the 
expenses  of  a  long  journey  to  a  country  I  am  about  to  mention,  where 
they  must  remain  till  the  murderer  is  dead. 


296  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

II.  I  ask  you,  then,  next,  come  and  see  Jesus  in  Egypt. 

Egypt,  as  some  of  you  know,  is  situated  upon  the  sea  called  the 
Mediterranean,  or,  in  the  Bible,  the  great  sea.  It  is  a  country  that  is 
about  six  hundred  miles  long,  and  three  hundred  broad  ;  and  there  is 
a  great  river  flowing  through  it,  called  the  river  Nile.  That  astonish- 
ing river  overflows  its  banks  twice  a  year ;  it  becomes  amazingly  large 
for  a  short  time,  and  then  it  becomes  small  again,  and  leaves  the 
ground  that  it  had  covered  exceedingly  fruitful,  so  that  it  is  never 
necessary  to  put  any  manure  upon  it,  and  Egypt  produces  the  richest 
crops.  You  recollect,  that  Joseph  was  in  Egypt,  and  he  rose,  from 
being  a  slave,  to  be  the  second  person  in  the  land.  And  you  recollect, 
that  the  Israelites  remained  in  Egypt  between  three  and  four  hundred 
years  ;  they  were  very  happy  at  first,  but  at  last  they  were  very  mis- 
erable, because  they  were  all  made  slaves ;  God,  however,  sent  a 
deliverer  to  them,  called  Moses,  who  led  them  out  of  the  land,  and 
they  escaped  from  the  hand  of  their  enemies.  And  now  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  was  taken  to  Egypt.  I  cannot  teU  you  how  he  was  con- 
veyed there,  over  the  deserts  of  Arabia ;  but  so  it  was,  he  was  con- 
veyed in  safety.  And  I  do  not  know  whether  any  people  went  with 
Joseph  and  Mary ;  as  far  as  I  know,  they  went  alone  ;  but  I  have  no 
doubt  angels  were  with  them,  and  it  is  probable  (though  the  Bible 
does  not  speak  expressly  upon  it,)  that  they  conversed  with  angels  by 
the  way,  as  Jacob  did  at  Bethel.  However,  they  reached  Egypt,  and 
took  a  httle  cottage  on  the  banks  of  the  Nile.  I  dare  say,  the  idol- 
atrous Egyptians  were  very  much  astonished  ;  they  could  not  under- 
stand where  they  came  from,  or  why  they  came  to  that  place.  They 
saw  they  were  very  decent  people  ;  they  paid  for  every  thing  they 
had,  and  conducted  themselves  with  the  greatest  propriety ;  and  I 
have  no  doubt  the  Egyptians  went  many  times  to  see  the  Uttle  Jewish 
child,  for  they  are  a  people  that  are  rather  black  in  the  countenance, 
and  they  are  very  fond  of  looking  upon  those  that  are  fair,  and  that 
come  from  a  more  northerly  climate  ;  and  Jesus  was  a  beautiful  child. 
I  have  no  doubt  many  an  Egyptian  mother  came  and  dandled  that 
child  upon  her  knee  ;  and  we  cannot  tell  but  Christ  afterwards  saved 
their  souls. 

There  they  remained  a  little  while  ;  and  then  an  angel  came  to 
them,  and  said  —  Herod  is  dead,  who  sought  the  young  child's  life  ; 
and  now  you  may  return.  So  they  took  farewell  of  all  their  neigh- 
bors, for  I  have  no  doubt  they  lived  in  good  fellowship  with  them  ;  and 
the  Egyptians,  I  dare  say,  were  son-y  to  part  with  Joseph  and  Mary 
and  the  beautiful  little  boy.     But  they  left  Egypt,  and  passed  through 


COME   AND    SEE  JESUS.  297 

the  deserts  of  Arabia,  and  at  last  came  to  the  Holy  Land  ;  and  they 
went  to  the  place  where  they  originally  lived,  namely,  a  place  called 
Nazareth  ;  and  there  they  remained  for  a  very  considerable  time  — 
till  our  Savior  entered  upon  his  ministry. 

III.  Now  next,  my  dear  young  friends,  come  and  see  Jesus  in  the 
temple. 

Do  you  know  what  a  beautiful  building  the  temple  was  ?  I  cannot 
describe  it,  it  was  so  beautiful.  There  was  first  a  temple  built  by 
Solomon,  and  that  was  beautiful,  beyond  description ;  but  that  was 
demolished,  and  there  was  another  temple  built  by  a  great  and  good 
man  called  Zerubbabel  —  a  man  of  very  considerable  wealth  and  a  man 
of  great  piety.  That  second  temple  was  afterwards  repaired  by  a 
very  bad  man  ;  for  bad  kings  are  sometimes  great  builders,  and  I  have 
read  in  a  little  history,  that  many  of  the  worst  kings  have  been  the 
greatest  builders  —  built  noble  cities  and  magnificent  palaces.  King 
Herod  was  a  great  monster  of  wickedness,  but  he  spent  an  amazing 
sum  of  money  in  beautifying  the  temple.  There  is  not  such  a  build- 
ing in  all  London,  as  that  temple  ;  Westminster  Hall  is  larger  consid- 
erably ;  but  in  magnificence  and  splendor  and  beauty,  Westminster 
Hall,  or  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  is  a  mere  hovel  compared  Avith  that 
temple,  so  remarkable  was  it  for  its  elegance  and  loveliness.  It  was 
as  white  as  snow  ;  it  was  built  of  white  marble,  as  white  as  alabaster, 
and  the  stones  were  twelve  feet  square.  Some  of  you  little  boys  are 
the  sons  of  carpenters  and  masons,  and  you  can  take  your  father's 
rule  to-night,  and  measure  twelve  feet  in  every  direction ;  that  was 
the  size  of  the  great  marble  blocks  of  stone,  by  which  the  temple  was 
adorned  ;  and  they  were  as  smooth  as  glass,  so  beautifully  were  they 
polished.  Then  there  was  a  grand  portico  to  this  temple,  and  over  it 
was  the  figure  of  an  amazing  vine,  made  of  gold  ;  all  the  little  twigs 
and  branches  and  leaves  were  made  of  sohd  gold,  and  the  clusters 
that  were  hanging  down  were  made  of  precious  stones  ;  and  when 
the  sun  shone  upon  it,  it  was  truly  astonishing  to  look  at.  The  Greeks 
and  magicians,  when  they  came  and  stood  opposite  to  it,  were  amazed 
beyond  description.  Oh  !  I  think  I  see  these  country  folks  looking  up 
to  this  vine,  and  wondering  at  the  beautiful  golden  leaves,  and  the 
multitude  of  clusters  of  precious  stones.  And  that  vile  monster 
Herod,  that  sought  to  murder  Christ,  gave  a  considerable  sura  of  money 
towards  completing  this  vine.  Some  writers  tell  us,  (and  it  is  not  un- 
likely,) that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  one  day  standing  with  his  dis- 
ciples over  against  this  very  portico,  and  they  were  looking  up  at  this 
noble  vine,  and  Peter  was  saying  to  John,  What  a  wonderful  vine  that 


298  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

is  !  —  and  John  was  saying  to  Philip,  What  an  amazing  vine  it  is  !  — 
but  Christ  said,  laying  his  hand  upon  his  bosom,  "  Jam  the  true  Vine : " 
that  vine  has  no  life,  it  is  only  the  resemblance  of  a  vine,  "Jam  the 
Vine,  and  ye  are  the  branches." 

Come  and  see  Jesus  in  this  temple  for  a  few  minutes.  Come  and 
see  Mary  carrying  him  in  her  atms,  along  the  marble  floor,  when  he 
was  only  eight  days  old ;  and  Joseph  is  along  with  her.  Do  you  see 
tliat  old  man,  with  his  hoary  locks,  and  his  snow-white  beard  down  to 
his  breast  ?  I  see  him  now  with  the  eye  of  my  mind.  Oh !  what  a 
lovely,  gentle  face  !  —  with  all  its  wrinkles  it  looks  so  sweet :  I  never 
saw  such  a  pleasant  old  man.  Would  you  like  to  know  his  name  ? 
That  is  the  venerable  Simeon.  He  is  walking  up  to  Mary ;  he  cannot 
walk  fast,  he  has  nearly  finished  his  journey ;  he  is  tottering  and 
feeble,  but  at  last  he  comes  up  to  Mary,  and  says,  "  Give  me  the 
babe."  Mary  looks  at  him,  and  without  any  questioning  at  once  takes 
her  beautiful  little  babe,  and  lays  him  down  on  those  old  arms ;  and 
then  Simeon  kisses  the  child's  lovely  lips,  and  presses  him  to  his 
bosom,  and  lifting  up  his  eyes  to  heaven,  exclaims  —  "  Lord,  now 
lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart  in  peace,  according  to  thy  word,  for 
mine  eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation."  And  then  he  gave  up  the  dear 
little  babe  to  his  mother.  There  was  another  aged  pilgrim,  too  —  an 
interesting  old  lady  ;  it  is  not  said  that  she  took  up  the  child  in  her 
arms,  but  probably  she  did ;  and  there  she  gazed  on  him  with  won- 
der, love,  and  admiration. 

But  now  come  and  see  Jesus  in  the  temple  again.  I  have  another 
sight  to  show  you :  I  must  take  you  into  a  retired  room  in  another 
part  of  the  temple  —  not  the  great  hall.  Do  you  see  those  twelve  old 
men  sitting  there  in  close  conversation  ?  They  look  like  very  learned 
men,  and  they  are  learned  men,  and  they  are  well  acquainted  with  the 
Old  Testament  in  the  Hebrew  language  ;  for  that  is  the  language  they 
speak.  But  who  is  that  sitting  in  the  midst  of  them  —  that  beautiful 
lad  about  twelve  years  of  age  ?  Oh  !  look  at  his  modest  countenance  ; 
look  at  his  gentle  eye,  look  at  the  affection  that  beams  in  his  face, 
look  at  his  whole  appearance  —  the  perfection  of  excellence.  Observe  : 
he  is  asking  those  old  men  questions  ;  not  with  any  degree  of  forward- 
ness, but  with  the  greatest  humihty.  He  is  saying  to  one,  What  is 
the  meaning  of  this  ?  —  and  the  old  learned  doctor  is  quite  astonished, 
and  he  says  to  the  next,  I  cannot  answer  this  question,  can  you  assist 
me  ?  Oh  no,  says  his  friend,  I  cannot :  that  is  too  hard  for  me. 
And  then  that  beautiful  lad  tells  him  the  meaning  of  the  difficult 
question  ;  opens  it  up,  and  explains  it,  to  their  great  astonishment,  so 
that  one  says  to  another  —  What  a  prodigy !  we  never  saw  such  a 


COME   AND    SEE   JESUS.  299 

prodigy  of  learning  and  of  wisdom  before.  But  there  is  a  woman 
entering  in  the  very  midst  of  the  conversation,  and  she  says  to  him, 
My  Son  !  That  is  Mary.  For  two  days  she  has  lost  him ;  and  when 
she  was  returning  from  Jerusalem  to  Nazareth  —  what  is  very  strange, 
and  I  cannot  explain  it  —  for  one  whole  day  she  had  never  seen  her 
Son,  nor  even  so  much  as  asked  herself,  Where  is  my  blessed  Son, 
Jesus  ?  —  and  at  last,  when  she  went  all  through  the  company,  (for 
there  were  a  great  number  of  them  walking  together,)  she  found  he 
was  not  there,  and  she  returned  with  Joseph  to  Jerusalem  with  a  heavy 
heart,  saying,  "  We  have  lost  our  Son  ;  where  shall  we  find  him  ?  " 
And  they  went  from  one  street  to  another,  and  from  one  square  to 
another,  but  they  could  not  see  him  ;  and  at  last  Mary  said  —  Let  us 
go  to  the  temple  ;  perhaps  we  shall  find  him  there.  Ah !  my  dear 
young  friends,  if  you  go  to  his  sanctuary,  you  will  find  Jesus  there ; 
this  is  one  of  his  temples,  and  he  is  here  to-day.  So  they  went  there, 
and  at  last  they  went  into  the  room  that  I  have  been  describing ;  and 
there  they  saw  him  in  the  midst  of  the  doctors,  answering  questions 
and  putting  questions,  and  showing  that  his  wisdom  was  more  than 
man's  —  that  his  wisdom  was  of  God.  And  when  his  mother  asks  him 
to  come  along  with  her,  he  does  not  resist ;  he  does  not  say  —  I  am  the 
mighty  Jesus ;  mother,  go  home,  and  leave  me  here,  for  I  must  remain 
about  my  Father's  work.  No,  but  he  instantly  submits  himself  with 
great  affection  ;  he  says  —  I  had  some  work  to  do  with  these  learned 
and  aged  men,  but  now  it  is  done,  and  I  will  go  home.  And  so  Christ 
left  the  temple,  and  went  home  to  Nazareth. 

IV.  Now,  in  the  fourth  place,  come  and  see  Jesus  at  Nazareth. 

Should  you  like  to  know  where  Nazareth  is  ?  It  is  seventy  miles 
north  of  Jerusalem  —  about  as  far  as  Northampton  is  north  of  London. 
Nazareth  is  built  (for  it  still  remains,)  upon  the  top  of  a  hill ;  and  there  is 
a  valley  all  around  it,  and  then  hills  rise  again,  so  that  it  is  on  a  hill  that 
stands  in  the  middle  of  a  hollow —  as  if  it  rose  in  the  middle  of  a  great 
cup.  And  this  city  was  in  Galilee  ;  that  was  the  name  of  the  province, 
or  as  we  should  call  it,  the  county  or  shire ;  and  it  was  not  far  from  a 
beautiful  lake  of  water,  perhaps  twenty  times  wider  than  the  Serpen- 
tine river  in  Hyde  Park.  There  the  river  Jordan  empties  itself;  and 
from  Nazareth  you  could  see  the  beautiful  lake,  with  the  fishermen's 
boats  upon  it  —  a  most  beautiful  sight  —  and  there  our  Savior  walked 
upon  the  waves. 

We  know  very  little  indeed  of  what  Christ  did  at  Nazareth  ;  but 
there  he  remained  till  he  was  thirty  years  of   ago,  and  he  worked 


300  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

with  his  father,  in  his  occupation  of  a  carpenter.  Oh !  children,  be 
astonished  at  this  amazing  thing  :  the  great  God,  the  Architect  of  the 
universe,  who  made  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  dwelUng  in  the  humanity 
of  Jesus,  and  working  at  a  carpenter's  bench  for  years !  I  cannot 
utter  it,  without  feehug  my  mind  filled  with  wonder.  I  dare  say,  some 
of  you  have  fathers  that  are  carpenters  ;  will  you  remind  them  to-night 
that  Joseph,  the  protecting  father  of  Christ,  was  a  humble  carpenter, 
a  hard-working  man,  and  Jesus  worked  at  his  father's  bench,  making 
pieces  of  furniture  for  houses  —  he  who  by  the  arm  of  his  omnipotence 
made  the  sun  and  moon  and  stars. 

But  there  is  one  thing  more  that  I  must  show  you  in  Nazareth. 
After  our  blessed  Lord  had  entered  upon  his  pubhc  ministry,  he 
thought  he  would  pay  a  visit  to  Nazareth  again.  He  did  not  expect 
they  would  receive  him  kindly ;  if  I  went  to  my  native  village,  which 
is  in  Perthshire,  in  Scotland,  I  should  expect  they  would  receive  me 
kindly,  but  the  Lord  Jesus  knew  that  he  should  not  be  welcome  at 
Nazareth,  and  that  the  inhabitants  would  ill  use  him.  He  went  into 
their  synagogues ;  and  preached  the  gospel  to  them ;  and  they  were 
so  filled  with  rage,  that  they  gnashed  their  teeth  at  him,  and  not 
satisfied  with  unkind  and  abusive  words,  coarse  and  rude  language, 
they  laid  hold  of  him,  and  said  —  Now  we  will  put  him  to  death  ;  we 
will  hurl  him  over  the  steep  precipice  by  the  side  of  our  city.  And 
away  they  carried  him  by  main  force,  and  rushed  like  a  torrent  till 
they  got  him  to  the  top  of  the  hill,  perhaps  fifty  feet  perpendicular. 
But  just  when  they  were  going  to  throw  him  over,  he  escaped  out  of 
their  hands  ;  they  could  not  tell  what  had  become  of  him  in  the  confu- 
sion, and  they  looked  at  one  and  another  with  amazement,  because  they 
had  not  succeeded  in  murdering  the  blessed  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Oh  ! 
my  young  friends,  may  you  feel  very  differently.  I  think  I  can  read 
the  minds  of  some  of  the  little  children  present,  and  they  are  saying  — 
If  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  came  to  London  in  his  humanity,  I  would 
run  to  see  him,  and  fall  down  at  his  feet,  yea,  and  clasp  his  feet  in  my 
arms  and  kiss  them  Hke  Mary  ;  oh !  how  I  should  like  to  see  the 
blessed  Jesus  !  My  beloved  young  friends,  you  will  never  so  see  him 
upon  earth ;  but  if  you  are  holy  children,  you  will  see  him  in  his 
humanity  in  heaven.  These  very  eyes,  that  are  now  rolling  in  their 
sockets,  and  sparkling  with  lustre,  shall  see  Jesus  ;  and  you  may  say 
with  holy  Job  —  "  Wbom  I  shall  see  for  myself,  and  mine  eyes  shall 
behold,  and  not  another." 


COME   AND    SEE   JESUS.  3-01 

V.  But  now,  my  young  friends,  come  and  see  Jesus  on  the  cross. 
This  is  a  dreadful  sight ;  but  you  and  I  must  tarry  a  little  at  the  cross 
before  we  part. 

This  cross  was  fixed  on  Calvary,  a  httle  way  out  of  the  city ;  and  it 
consisted  of  a  large  piece  of  timber,  several  feet  longer  than  a  tall 
man,  with  a  piece  of  wood  across  it,  to  which  the  hands  were  nailed. 
Your  Savior  was  nailed  to  the  cross  ;  and  when  it  made  the  blood  gush 
out,  instead  of  complaining  of  the  soldiers  for  being  so  cruel  as  to  nail 
him  there,  he  uttered  this  prayer —  "  Father,  forgive  them,  for  they 
know  not  what  they  do." 

Do  you  see  those  three  women  standing  near  the  cross  ?  I  will  tell  you 
their  names.  The  name  of  the  first  is  Mary  ;  and  the  name  of  the 
second  is  Mary ;  and  the  name  of  the  third  is  Mary.  All  their  names 
were  3Iary  ;  and  that  word  signifies  bitterness.  There  was  Mary,  the 
mother  of  Christ ;  there  was  Mary,  the  wife  of  Cleopas ;  and  there 
was  Mary  Magdalen.  And  there  was  a  young  man  standing  beside 
Mary  the  mother  of  Christ ;  and  his  name  was  John ;  and  sobbing 
bitterly,  because  of  the  agonies  of  Jesus  her  son.  And  at  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  a  wonderful  event  took  place  ;  your  Lord  was 
nailed  on  the  cross  at  nine  o'clock  in  the  forenoon,  and  at  three  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon  (called,  in  Jewish  calculation,  the  ninth  hour,)  when 
Jesus  gave  up  the  ghost,  the  whole  sky  became  dark.  What  would 
be  your  surprise  now,  if  all  on  a  sudden  this  afternoon  the  sky  were  to 
l)ecome  black,  and  the  darkness  so  great,  that  you  could  not  so  much 
as  see  one  another,  sitting  in  your  pews.  Oh !  I  think  I  hear  the 
children  screaming,  and  exclaiming,  Surely  the  end  of  the  world  is 
come.  So  great  was  the  darkness,  that  the  boldest  men  among  the 
Jews  fell  upon  the  ground  in  terror.  And  the  very  earth  shook ;  and 
the  graves  Avere  torn  open  ;  and  the  veil  of  the  temple  was  rent  in  two. 

But  yet  there  is  a  sweet  voice  from  the  cross ;  and  it  is  addressed  to 
every  little  child.     And  the  voice  is  this : 

"  Come,  and  welcome ;  sinner  come." 

"  From  the  cross,  uplifted  high, 
Where  the  Savior  deigns  to  die, 
Wliat  melodious  sounds  I  hear, 
Bursting  on  my  ravish'd  ear  ! 
'  Love's  redeeming  work  is  done  ; 
Come,  and  welcome  ;  sinner,  come.' " 

VI.  Next,  my  young  friends,  come  and  see  Jesus  in  his  grave. 

There  was  a  funeral  procession  that  evenmg ;  and  it  was  the  funeral 
of  Christ.     There  are  many  that  keep  a  certain  day,  called   Good 


302  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

Friday,  to  commemorate  it ;  that  was  last  Friday.  There  was  no 
hearse  with  six  beautiful  black  horses,  and  no  undertakers  by  the  side 
with  their  black  rods  tipped  with  brass,  and  there  was  no  coflSn.  There 
was  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  and  Nicodemus,  and  some  of  their  servants 
or  attendants,  and  some  pious  women ;  and  they  washed  his  body,  and 
applied  precious  ointment  to  it ;  and  they  wrapped  it  gently  and  affec- 
tionately in  a  beautiful  web  of  linen,  that  Joseph  had  purchased  at  one 
of  the  shops  in  Jerusalem ;  and  they  took  another  piece  of  linen,  and 
wrapped  it  round  his  precious  face  ;  and  then  they  carried  his  body  to 
a  beautiful  garden  belonging  to  Joseph,  where  there  was  a  grave,  that 
Joseph  had  prepared  for  himself,  dug  out  of  a  rock.  It  was  a  beautiful 
place,  probably  more  beautiful  than  the  Cemetery  at  Highgate,  which 
I  greatly  admire  ;  it  was  adorned  with  citron  trees  and  orange  trees ; 
and  a  large  stone  was  rolled  to  the  mouth  of  the  grave,  and  some  of 
the  friends  of  Jesus  watched  the  tomb.  Oh  !  children,  look  at  those 
lips  which  proclaimed  the  gospel,  now  silent  in  death ;  those  hands 
which  performed  miracles,  now  motionless  ;  those  eyes  which  beamed 
with  such  love  and  compassion,  now  silent  in  darkness ;  that  side,  with 
an  open  wound,  inflicted  by  the  cruel  spear. 

But  I  have  another  sight  to  show  you,  —  and  it  is  lovely  and 
glorious ;  come  and  see  Jesus  rising  out  of  the  grave.  Who  is  that 
flying  through  the  skies,  brighter  than  the  morning  star  ?  It  is  an 
angel.  Watch  his  course.  He  comes  down  with  his  golden  wings, 
and  he  lights  at  the  door  of  the  grave,  and  in  one  moment  he  rolls  the 
great  stone  from  the  mouth  of  the  sepulchre,  though  it  is  so  heavy  that 
it  would  require  a  great  many  men  to  lift  it.  And  then  the  blessed 
Jesus  rises.  I  think  I  see  him  coming  out  of  the  grave  ;  oh  !  what  a 
lovely,  placid,  glorious  countenance  !  Then  is  fulfilled  that  wonderful 
prediction  —  "  0  death,  I  will  be  thy  plagues  ;  0  grave,  I  will  be  thy 
destruction."  And  now  join  with  me,  my  dear  little  children,  in  the 
following  lines — 

"  Our  Loi'd  is  risen  from  the  dead, 
Our  Jesus  is  gone  up  on  high  ; 
,  The  powers  of  hell  are  captive  led, 

Dragg'd  to  the  portals  of  the  sky." 

VII.  Now,  lastly,  come  and  see  Christ  in  Heaven. 

Children,  if  you  have  the  eye  of  faith,  (and  some  of  you  have,) 
look  at  him.  See  him  on  his  throne  —  a  throne  higher  than  the  highest 
of  heaven's  thrones ;  see  him  in  robes,  brighter  than  the  sun  ;  see 
him  with  his  crown,  crowned  with  many  crowns  of  glory.  See  him 
with  his  attendants,  millions  of  angels,  myriads  of  saints,  faUing 
prostrate  in  his  presence.     Oh !  what  a  sight !     Should  you  like  to  see 


COME    AND    SEE   JESUS.  303 

CUnst  in  heaven  ?  If  you  have  any  desire  to  see  him  in  that  glorious 
place,  you  must  receive  him  ;  by  the  Holy  Spirit  you  must  give  your- 
selves up  to  him,  you  must  love  him  with  all  your  hearts.  Then  you 
will  be  able  truly  to  join  in  those  beautiful  words,  that  you  have  often 
sung  — 

"  Oh  !  how  happy  we  shall  be, 
For  our  Savior  we  shall  see, 
Exalted  on  his  throne  : 

Oh  !  that  will  be  joyful, 

When  we  meet  to  part  no  more." 

And  now,  my  beloved  children,  before  we  part,  I  have  a  gift  to 
present  to  you  in  the  name  of  Jesus.  I  have  not  a  purse  of  gold,  to 
give  to  each  of  these  dear  little  boys  ;  I  have  not  a  beautiful  necklace, 
to  give  to  each  of  these  dear  little  girls.  I  once  saw  a  necklace, 
consisting  of  brilliant  diamonds,  and  valued  at  £70,000 ;  I  have  no 
necklace  to  give  you,  nor  bracelets  for  your  arms,  nor  any  earthly 
honors,  or  riches,  or  title  deeds  of  estates,  nor  any  cup  of  carnal 
pleasure.  But  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  I  have  something  to  present  this 
afternoon,  more  valuable  than  the  heavens  themselves.  It  is  a  "  Pearl 
of  great  price  ;  "  it  is  an  "  unspeakable  gift ; "  it  is  a  Savior  —  Christ 
the  Lord. 

Little  boy,  Christ  says.  Receive  me ;  Little  girl,  Christ  says, 
Receive  me.  Christ  says  —  My  son,  receive  me;  My  daughter, 
receive  me ;  Teachers,  receive  me ;  Ministers,  receive  me ; 
Visitors  and  hearers,  receive  me ;  Parents  of  these  children, 
receive  me.  Receive  me  as  your  Savior ;  I  gave  myself  to  death  for 
you,  and  I  now  give  myself  to  you  as  your  Savior  from  sin  and  from 
hell. 

Oh !  my  beloved  young  friends,  answer  —  (may  God  the  Spirit 
enable  you!  Holy  Spirit,  give  them  thy  grace!) — Jesus,  lovely, 
Jesus,  mighty  Jesus,  merciful  Jesus,  glorious  Jesus,  we  now  receive 
thee  ;  thou  art  ours,  ours  wholly,  ours  only,  ours  for  ever. 


304 


SERMON   XXV. 

man's  happiness  dependant  on  his  coming  to  chkist. 

BY  REV.  timothy  EAST. 
"  Ye  will  not  come  to  me  that  ye  might  have  life." — John  v.  40. 

You  have  read,  I  have  no  doubt,  the  memoirs  of  many  wise  and  good 
men,  and  I  will  venture  to  say  that  while  reading  them  you  never  had 
suggested  to  your  mind  any  conception  that  they  were  anything  more 
than  wise  and  good  men,  wise  and  good  men  compassed  with  infirmities, 
who,  with  all  their  excellencies,  had  corresponding  defects.  Now  if  Jesus 
Christ  had  been  only  a  man,  as  some  say  he  was,  we  ought  to  be  able  to 
go  through  his  memoirs  without  receiving  even  the  slightest  impression, 
from  anything  that  is  said  of  him  or  by  him,  that  he  was  anything  more 
than  a  wise  and  good  man,  who,  with  all  his  excellencies,  to  be  human 
should  have  had  some  corresponding  defects.  But  this  is  not  the  case ; 
and  I  feel  myself  under  no  moral  obligation,  much  as  I  respect  the 
claims  of  justice,  to  believe  any  man  who  can  tell  me  that  he  has  gone 
through  the  history  of  the  Savior's  life  with  attention,  and  never  had 
an  impression  that  he  was  anything  more  than  a  mere  man.  But  how 
is  this  ?  There  is  either  some  grand  error  in  the  writer,  or  the  Son 
of  God  occupies  a  rank  higher  than  a  mere  son  of  man.  Indeed,  my 
brethren,  without  dwelling  on  particular  words,  is  it  possible  that  such 
language  as  that  which  I  have  now  read,  could  have  fallen  from  the 
lips  of  a  mere  man  ?  Eternal  Hfe  dependant  on  an  application  to  him  ! 
—  an  implied  condemnation  of  eternal  woe  against  every  man  who  does 
not  come  to  Jesus  Christ  for  everlasting  life  !  Did  ever  man  speak  like 
this  ? 

In  illustrating,  my  brethren,  the  words  of  my  text,  allow  me  to  notice 
two  things  :  first,  that  the  final  happiness  of  man  is  made  dependant  on 
his  coming  to  Jesus  Christ ;  and,  secondly,  strange  as  it  may  appear, 
men  will  not  come  to  him  that  they  might  have  eternal  life. 

I.  I  remark,  then,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  final  salvation  of 
man  is  made  dependant  on  his  coming  to  Jesus  Christ. 

Jesus  Christ  is  unquestionably  a  unique  being,  diverse  from  all 
others,  possessing  the  essential  attributes  of  humanity  without  the  least 
tinge  of  imperfection,  and  the  essential  attributes  of  divinity  without 


COMING  TO    CHRIST.  305 

any  abstraction  from  their  greatness  or  glory.  He  is,  my  brethren,  a. 
being  who  exists  in  a  condition  unlike  that  of  any  other  being,  not  a 
condition  either  of  simple  humanity  or  of  simple  divinity,  but  one  that 
combines  the  attributes  of  the  divine  and  human  nature  in  his  own 
person.  He  is  thus  constituted  a  Savior  able  and  willing  to  "  save  to 
the  uttermost  all  that  come  unto  God  by  him."  Hence  eternal  life  is 
made  dependant  upon  a  personal  application  or  coming  to  him.  Now 
this  expression  "  come  "  is  synonymous  with  believing  in  him,  trusting 
in  him,  depending  upon  him.  To  sustain  the  character  of  a  Savior  it 
was  necessary  that  he  should  suffer,  the  just  for  the  unjust ;  it  was 
necessary  that  he  should  give  his  life  a  ransom  for  men,  it  was  neces- 
sary that  his  blood  should  be  able  to  cleanse  from  all  accumulated  guilt, 
and  that  he  should  be  invested  with  power  to  remit  the  guilt  of  sins, 
and  to  confer  the  gift  of  eternal  life.  To  obtain  these  benefits  the 
sinner  is  required  to  come  to  Christ.  It  is  not  a  corporeal  act ;  it  is 
not,  my  brethren,  a  mere  bowing  at  the  name  of  Jesus  whenever  that 
name  is  uttered  ;  it  is  not  a  mere  speculative  assent  to  the  truth  of 
what  is  stated  respecting  him  ;  but  it  is  a  personal  application  in  the 
exercise  of  an  enlightened  faith,  trusting  to  him  to  fulfil  the  promise 
on  which  faith  is  founded  for  the  hope  of  acceptance  and  eternal  life. 
And  you  will  allow  me  ere  I  proceed,  to  ask  you  a  few  plain  questions 
in  reference  to  this  coming  to  Christ.  My  hearers,  have  you  ever  felt 
the  guilt  of  your  own  sins  pressing  heavily  upon  your  conscience  ? 
Have  you  ever  perceived  that  awful  abyss  of  danger  to  which  they 
have  so  justly  and  inevitably  exposed  you  ?  Have  you  ever  been 
brought  to  feel  deep  and  ingenuous  contrition  of  soul  for  having  sinned 
against  your  own  conscience,  sinned  against  your  own  social  and  spir- 
itual interest  ?  Have  you  ever  adopted  the  piercing  language  which 
once  fell  from  the  lips  of  those  who  were  in  conscious  danger,  "  Lord 
save  or  I  perish?"  Have  you  ever  felt  every  other  foundation  of 
acceptance  moving  from  beneath  your  hold,  and  been  convinced  that 
there  is  no  salvation  save  through  faith  in  the  name  and  mediation  of 
Christ  ?  These  are  preparatory  convictions,  and  preparatory  convic- 
tions qualifying  a  sinner  to  come  to  Christ  to  be  saved.  Can  you  adopt 
the  language,  with  which  I  have  no  doubt  you  are  famihar, 

"  Other  refuge  have  I  none, 
Hangs  my  helpless  soul  on  thee." 

Do  you  trust  in  Christ  ? 

Now  the  incidents  which  are  recorded  in  the  history  of  our  Lord's 
life,  are  recorded  for  some  other  purpose,  than  that  merely  of  instruct- 
ing us  in  what  he  did  and  how  he  acted.  The  incidents  to  which  I  am 
20 


S06  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

about  to  refer  embody  great  principles,  and  teacb  us  on  what  principles 
he  now  conducts  his  mediatorial  power  and  the  administration  of  mercy 
and  of  grace  to  men.  Hence,  when  a  sinner  came  that  was  blind  ; 
when  a  leper  came  that  wanted  to  be  cleansed  ;  when  an  apphcation 
was  made  to  Jesus  Christ  for  any  cure  on  behalf  of  the  suppliant,  or 
on  behalf  of  another  for  whom  that  suppliant  pleaded,  Jesus  Christ 
required,  as  a  qualification  for  the  reception  of  the  blessing,  an 
acknowledgment  that  he  was  able  to  confer  it.  And  though,  my 
brethren,  some  have  taken  an  objection  against  this  requisition  on  the 
part  of  the  Son  of  God,  when  in  the  human  form,  allow  me  to  say  it 
is  one  of  the  common-place  principles  on  which  human  nature  every 
where  acts.  You  go  and  ask  a  favor  from  a  friend.  Will  he  confer 
the  favor  unless  you  express  a  belief  that  he  is  able  to  do  so  ?  Cer- 
tainly not.  An  application  to  an  inefficient  power  could  only  be  regarded 
as  an  insult.  Hence,  Jesus  Christ,  acting  on  the  common-place  princi- 
ples of  human  nature,  required  that  any  one  applying  to  him  for  a 
favor  should  acknowledge  his  ability  to  confer  it.  And  so  now,  if  you 
wish  to  be  saved  by  Christ,  when  you  come  it  must  be  in  a  full  belief 
that  he  can  confer  salvation.  Mistrust  renders  an  application  offensive  ; 
a  doubt  paralyzes  the  omnipotence  of  his  power.  There  must  be  an 
implicit,  an  unfeigned  assent.  He  has  no  objection  to  exercise  mercy 
towards  the  guilty,  by  compromising  his  own  dignity,  or  letting  down 
the  majesty  of  his  power  and  his  glory  to  a  level  with  the  infirmities 
and  impeachments  of  human  frailty  and  unbelief.  There  mnst  be  the 
admission  of  power  where  there  is  the  prayer  of  penitence.  You  must 
come  to  Christ  under  a  full  belief  that  he  is  able  and  willing  to  save 
you,  not  at  some  remote  period,  but  now.  "  Lord  save  or  I  perish !  " 
When  ?  When  I  feel  in  the  act  of  perishing  —  save  now  by  the  power 
of  the  Savior's  love,  and  the  manifestation  of  his  pardoning  grace. 
There  is  a  question  that  is  often  mooted,  and  which  cannot,  my  brethren, 
be  set  at  rest  too  speedily,  because  it  is  a  question  which  hampers  the 
opinion  and  very  much  disquiets  the  feelings  of  a  sinner  who  is  under 
the  first  impressions  of  guilt.  "  May  I  come  to  the  Savior  now  ?  "  I 
am  a  guilty,  worthless,  helpless,  hell-deserving  sinner.  May  I  venture 
to  come  to  him  now  ?  The  question  is  proposed,  my  brethren,  under 
an  implied  belief  in  the  necessity  of  tarrying  till  some  pi-e-requisites 
are  obtained  to  induce  the  Savior  to  exercise  mercy  and  grace,  if  not 
with  more  facility,  at  least  with  more  complacency.  Now  to  set  the 
question  at  rest,  so  far,  my  hearers,  as  your  feeliags  are  concerned,  let 
me  ask  what  qualifies  a  pauper  to  solicit  relief  ?  Is  it  not  his  neces- 
sities ?  Does  the  pauper  require  a  small  degree  of  wealth  to  relieve 
him  from  his  indigence  before  he  will  go  and  solicit  charity  from  the 


COMING   TO   CHRIST.  307 

benevolent  ?  No.  The  poorer  he  is,  the  more  urgent  -will  be  his  claim. 
Who  solicits  the  exercise  of  the  royal  clemency  with  the  most  feeling 
and  in  the  most  earnest  manner  ?  The  criminal  whose  life  is  forfeited. 
He  who  is  merely  under  the  liability  of  being  transported  from  his 
native  country  for  a  term  of  years,  has  not  such  an  interest  in  the 
exercise  of  mercy  as  the  man  whose  life  is  forfeited,  whose  life  belongs 
to  the  sovereign  power.  It  is  the  extremity  of  the  case  justifies  the 
urgency  and  promptness  of  the  appeal.  And  therefore  you,  0  man, 
if  for  example,  you  came  into  the  chapel  to-night  a  hardened  sinner,  if 
the  last  sentence  that  ever  fell  frona  your  lips  passed  through  lips 
profaned  to  the  exercise  of  blasphemy,  and  you  should  have  felt  ere 
this  moment  arrived  that  you  were  a  sinner  guilty,  condemned,  lost, 
ready  to  perish,  you  are  now  in  a  condition  to  come  to  Christ  for  mercy 
before  the  service  closes.  Your  prayer  should  be,  "  Lord  save  me," 
and  your  application  should  be  now  under  the  strong  impression  of 
conscious  guilt,  and  your  dependence  should  be  exclusive.  You,  0 
man,  have  as  great  a  warrant  to  expect  mercy  and  eternal  life  as  the 
most  eminent  saint  that  ever  walked  in  fellowship  with  God  and  glori- 
fied him  with  his  body,  soul,  and  spirit.  And  when,  my  brethren,  this 
act  is  performed,  when,  that  is,  a  sinner,  with  a  full  impression  of  his 
guilt  and  unworthiness,  comes  to  Jesus  Christ,  penitent, broken-hearted, 
relying  on  his  promise  for  mercy  and  eternal  life,  expecting  that  promise 
to  be  fulfilled,  something  is  done  which  is  felt  to  be  of  importance  on 
account  of  its  immediate  and  continued  influence  over  the  state  of  the 
heart.  Coming  into  contact  either  accidentally  or  designedly  with 
friends  or  even  with  strangers,  sometimes  leads  to  results  very  unanti- 
cipated and  of  vast  importance.  Many  a  fine  character  has  been 
ruined  by  passing  an  evening  amongst  strangers.  Many  a  young  man 
has  left  his  home,  comparatively  innocent,  to  take  a  solitary  walk, 
either  in  the  country  or  along  the  crowded  streets  of  this  city,  without 
any  design  to  form  an  intimacy,  and  under  no  impression  that  he  shall 
return  home  different  in  taste  or  in  desire  to  what  he  was  when  he  left 
it,  and  yet  having  left  home  comparatively  pure,  he  has  gone  back 
corrupted.  An  accidental  association  with  a  fascinating  stranger,  a 
designed  interview  with  an  old  friend  who  has  become  corrupt,  his  moral 
corruption  not  previously  known  except  to  himself,  has  led  to  the 
destruction  of  a  fine  social  reputation,  to  health,  to  peace,  and,  alas  I 
to  ruin  for  ever  and  ever.  But,  my  brethren,  no  intimacy  which  is 
ever  formed  by  accident  or  design,  is  ever  known  to  produce  such  a 
singular  effect  upon  the  human  character,  both  the  interior  and  external 
development  of  that  character,  as  a  coming  to  Jesus  Christ  to  be  saved. 
What  a  wonderful  effect  it  has !    What  a  singular  effect  was  produced, 


308  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

mj  brethren,  upon  the  exterior  of  the  man  who  "was  placed  at  the  feet 
of  Jesus,  to  whom  Jesus  said,  in  the  first  instance,  "  Thj  sins  are 
forgiven  thee  ;  "  and  after  that,  "  Take  up  thy  bed  and  walk."  The 
man  was  borne  there  a  paralytic,  under  the  sentence  of  divine  condem- 
nation ;  he  walked  away  in  the  possession  of  health  and  strength,  a 
pardoned  sinner,  feeling  a  full  consciousness  that  his  sins  were  forgiven 
him  at  the  moment  the  Savior  spoke.  Here  was  an  effect.  It  was 
not  a  fanciful  impression.  No  ;  nor,  my  brethren,  is  that  a  fanciful 
impression  which  is  produced  upon  the  heart  of  the  sinner,  when  he 
comes  to  Jesus  Christ  to  be  saved.  Fanciful  illusion !  The  burden 
of  his  guUt  is  removed ;  the  disquietude  of  an  uneasy  conscience  is 
allayed ;  the  virulence  of  decayed  passions  is  quelled ;  the  fearful 
apprehension  of  coming  woe  passes  away  ;  there  is  peace  in  exchange 
for  guilt ;  there  is  tranquillity  in  exchange  for  disquietude  ;  there  is  the 
hope  of  immortality  and  eternal  life  for  the  fearfulness  of  coming 
destruction.  And  I  appeal  to  you,  who  are  as  qualified  to  judge  in  this 
question  as  myself,  whether  these  efforts  do  not  follow,  either  instanta- 
neously or  gradually,  a  coming  to  Jesus  Christ  to  be  saved  from  wrath 
to  come  ?  And  not  only,  brethren,  are  these  effects  produced  on  the 
interior  state  of  the  man,  but  there  are  other  effects  manifested  in  his 
exterior  conduct.  What  makes  the  drunkard  sober  ?  What  is  it  that 
induces  the  Sabbath-breaker  to  keep  holy  the  day  of  rest  ?  What  is  it 
that  converts  the  blasphemer  into  an  attendant  at  prayer  meetings,  who 
ofiers  up  his  supphcations  and  thanksgivings  in  a  simple,  concise,  and 
appropriate  style  of  speech  ?  What  is  it  that  causes  the  old  things  of 
evil  to  pass  away,  and  makes  all  things  to  become  new  ?  Here  is  the 
secret  of  the  mystery  :  it  is  coming  to  Jesus  Christ,  believing  in  Jesus 
Christ.  Hence  the  efiects  following  this  application  decide  that  some- 
thing is  done  which  is  felt  to  be  extraordinary.  And  not  only  so,  it  is 
felt  to  be  satisfactory.  There  are  many  of  the  transactions  in  which 
human  nature  is  engaged,  which  entail  a  vast  amount  of  regret. 
Sometimes  the  regret  is  unfailing,  and  continues  through  life  ;  and 
where,  my  brethren,  there  is  no  pungent  regret,  there  is  often  much 
uneasiness.  A  thing  is  done  that  is  not  felt  to  be  satisfactory  after  it 
is  done  ;  it  requires  revision  and  re-adjustment,  even  if  it  entail  no 
lasting  and  painful  regret.  But  these  remarks  do  not  apply,  in  the 
slightest  degree,  to  an  application  to  Jesus  Christ  for  acceptance  and 
eternal  life.  When  the  application  is  made,  and  when  the  result  is 
known,  I  appeal  to  you,  my  Christian  brethren,  if  there  be  not  the 
highest  degree  of  satisfaction  felt  ?  You  feel  that  something  is  done, 
and  you  are  satisfied  that  something  is  done  ;  you  never  want  it  revised 
or  undone.     The  mind  feels  at  ease,  and  rises  at  times  to  transport. 


COMING   TO   CHRIST.  309 

The  eye  is  suffused  with  tears  of  gratitude,  and  the  whole  soul  seems 
to  bound  away  before  the  hour  of  her  actual  departure,  to  have 
impressed  upon  her  imagination  that  gi'and  and  sublime  scene,  when 
mortality  will  be  swallowed  up  in  life,  and  eternal  bliss  will  be  in  actual 
possession.  And,  allow  me  to  say,  my  brethren,  in  connection  with  the 
result  of  an  application  to  Jesus  Christ,  that  not  only  is  there  a  high 
degree  of  satisfaction,  but  this  satisfaction  is  never,  never  disturbed,  nor 
is  there  the  slightest,  faintest  wish  to  have  this  one  great  occurrence  of 
our  life  ever  broken  up  and  destroyed.  There  is  a  beautiful  expression 
of  the  apostle  on  this  point,  which  is  illustrated  by  the  practical  expe- 
rience of  every  believer  in  Jesus  Christ.  "  To  whom  coming  "  —  not 
only  "  come "  to  Jesus  Christ  to  be  saved,  but  "  to  whom  coming," 
indicating,  what  is  in  fact  experienced,  that  there  is  a  ceaseless  inter- 
course subsisting  between  a  saved  sinner  and  an  Almighty  Savior. 
*'  To  whom  coming,"  for  a  fresh  application  of  his  pardoning  mercy 
and  cleansing  blood,  when  the  imagination  and  the  heart  are  defiled  by 
contact  with  the  world;  "to  whom  coming"  for  fresh  mental  and 
spiritual  intercourse  with  him,  who  is  the  fountain  of  life  and  joy,  and 
the  rejoicing  of  the  heart  of  all  who  trust  and  hope  in  him  ;  "  coming" 
to  have  reiterated  assurances  of  protection  ;  "  coming  "  to  have  enlarged 
manifestations  of  his  love.  And,  0  brethren,  when  the  last  period  of 
mortality  arrives,  how  sacred,  how  transporting,  how  full  of  ineffable 
delight  are  the  spiritual  communings  of  the  soul  with  Jesus  Christ.  A 
friend  of  mine,  who  for  a  series  of  years  had  trusted  in  Jesus  Christ 
for  salvation,  who  had  enjoyed  a  large  share  of  peace,  and  whose  mind 
possessed  the  highest  degrees  of  assurance  of  future  happiness,  when 
within  a  few  minutes  of  her  departure,  said  to  her  husband,  who  stood 
weeping  by  her  side,  "  My  dear,  once  more  kneel  down  and  let  us  hold 
fellowship  with  the  Savior  together."  He  knelt  and  prayed  ;  he  prayed 
with  difficulty.  He  commended  the  spirit  of  his  beloved  wife  to  the 
care  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  while  passing  through  the  dark  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death  ;  and  he  arose,  and  there  sat  his  Avife,  with  an  inimi- 
table smile  upon  her  countenance,  and  she  said,  "  I  have  through  life 
at  times  enjoyed  the  presence  of  Jesus,  but  never,  never,  never  till  this 
moment,  did  I  feel  what  the  bhss  of  communion  with  him  is."  She 
smiled  again  ;  her  bend  fell,  and  she  entered  into  rest.  "  To  whom 
coming,"  till  at  length  he  comes  and  takes  the  soul  to  himself  that 
confides  in  him  for  eternal  life. 

II.  But  now,  my  brethren,  I  have  to  call  your  attention  to  a  most 
melancholy  part  of  the  subject,  for  melancholy  it  certainly  is.  It  is  a 
part  of  the  subject  which  I  should  very  much  Uke  to  omit  altogether. 


310  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

and  which  I  certainly  would  omit  if  I  were  not  constrained  by  a 
sense  of  duty,  and  by  a  regard  for  the  spiritual  interest  of  those 
among  you  who  are  yet  living  without  Christ  in  the  world,  to  press  it 
upon  your  notice.  The  melancholy  part  of  my  subject  is,  that  although 
eternal  life  is  made  dependent  on  an  application  to  Jesus  Christ,  many, 
the  majority,  the  overwhelming  majority  of  those  who  hear  of  Christ 
—  (am  I  warranted  in  saying,  the  majority  in  this  congregation  ?)  will 
not  come  to  him  that  they  may  have  life.  Perhaps  if  I  were  to  adopt 
this  last  supposition  I  should  exceed  the  bounds  of  truth,  I  never 
like  to  be  extravagant,  and  therefore  I  will  suppose  that  the  over- 
whelming majority  of  this  congregation  have  come  to  Christ,  and  are 
safe.  [There  is  nothing,  then,  my  brethren,  which  you  have  to  fear ; 
you  have  every  thing  to  hope  for.]  Nay,  I  will  go  beyond  the  over- 
whelming majority ;  I  will  suppose  that  there  are  only  ten  pereons  in 
this  chapel  to-night  who  have  not  come  to  Christ  for  salvation.  If 
only  ten,  what  an  ecstacy  of  bliss  should  we  feel  that  there  are  only 
ten  —  only  ten  —  in  this  congregation  yet  unpardoned  and  unsaved  ! 
Did  I  say  what  an  ecstacy  of  bliss  ?  What  a  torturing  agony  of  soul 
ought  we  to  feel  if  there  are  ten  yet  under  sentence  of  condemnation  I 
Who  are  they  that  constitute  the  ten  in  this  congregation,  yet  under 
sentence  of  eternal  condemnation  ?  0  man  !  is  it  thy  wife  ?  0 
woman !  is  it  thine  husband  ?  0  father  !  is  it  thy  child  ?  0  brother  I 
is  it  thy  sister  ?  If  either  of  these  relative  associations  have  brought 
to  your  recollection  one  who  may  be  supposed  to  form  part  of  this 
given  number,  let  your  prayer  now,  whilst  I  am  in  the  act  of  address- 
ing you,  be,  "  Lord,  grant  that  my  wife,  my  husband,  my  father,  my 
brother,  my  son,  my  daughter,  may  receive  impressions  that  shall  force 
them  to  come  to  Christ  for  salvation."  "  Ye  will  not  come  to  Christ 
that  ye  might  have  life."  No<V,  this  is  a  fact  that  no  one  can  dispute. 
There  are  various  reasons  to  be  assigned  for  it.  Some  are  much  too 
proud  to  come  to  Jesus  Christ  to  be  saved.  There  is  nothing  more 
offensive  to  the  pride  of  a  man  of  intellect,  to  a  man  of  high  social 
virtue,  to  a  man  who  has  formed  something  like  a  classic  taste  for 
Christianity,  to  a  man  who  is  encompassed  with  the  charm  of  super- 
stitious impressions  and  associations,  than  to  be  told  that  he  must  come 
to  Jesus  Christ  with  the  same  spirit  and  the  same  feelings,  and  must 
utter  the  same  language  as  publicans  and  harlots  and  sinners  of  the 
most  offensive  and  obnoxious  character.  It  is  this  that  offends  the 
pride  of  man.  He  will  not  do  it.  No,  he  will  not  do  it :  and  per- 
haps this  may  be  the  case  with  some  of  you.  You  are  too  proud,  too 
haughty,  you  have  too  high  a  sense  of  your  own  moral  dignity,  to 
perform  such  a  humiUating  act  as  that  of  coming  to  Jesus  Christ, 


COMING  TO   CHRISf .  311 

breathing  the  language  of  the  puhlican,  and  saying,  "  Lord  Jesus, 
have  mercy  upon  me."  This  is  one  reason  ;  and,  my  brethren,  the 
truth  is,  that  the  social  virtues  of  some  people  do  more  to  secure  their 
eternal  damnation,  than  do  the  vices  of  others.  Ah!  many  a  man 
continues  unsaved  because  he  thinks  himself  too  good  to  be  lost.  The 
social  virtues  lead  sinners  on  to  hell  by  blinding  them  to  that  sentence 
of  condemnation  which  God  has  pronounced  against  them  for  sins  com- 
mitted against  himself.  And  hence  the  righteous  are  lost,  whilst  the 
wicked,  by  being  brought  to  penitence  and  to  Christ,  are  saved.  It  is 
for  you  to  decide,  who  have  not  yet  come  to  Christ,  whether  it  is  the 
pride  of  intellect,  or  the  pride  of  social  virtue  that  keeps  you 
away.  It  matters  not  what  it  is  —  the  issue  will  be  the  same.  If 
you  do  not  come  you  will  be  lost,  and  that  for  ever. 

But  sometimes  persons  assign  as  a  reason  why  they  do  not  come  to 
Jesus  Christ,  that  they  cannot  come.  They  reason  in  this  manner. 
"  I  cannot  believe  ;  I  cannot  apply  to  Jesus  Christ  in  the  right  way  : 
I  cannot  repose  confidence  in  him  that  shall  secure  salvation  to  my 
soul ;  all  this  requires  divine  assistance,  and  I  have  it  not."  Then 
wait.  What  will  you  get  ?  My  friend,  this  is  nothing  but  an  inge- 
nious device,  not  in  your  favor,  as  human  nature  generally  acts,  but 
against  your  own  interest.  It  is  employing  the  art  and  contrivance  to 
render  the  loss  of  your  soul  more  certain  than  it  would  be,  by  contin- 
uing in  a  course  of  open  profligacy  ;  it  is  becoming  ingenious  to  render 
your  damnation  awfully  certain  ;  it  is  offering,  my  brother,  an  insult 
to  the  very  first  principles  of  our  fallen  nature,  which  teach  us  that 
self-preservation  is  the  grand  law  by  which  human  nature  is  every 
where  governed  ;  it  is  setting  this  grand  law  at  positive  defiance,  not 
to  entail  misery  on  others,  but  to  entail  eternal  misery  on  yourself.  I 
remarked,  my  brethren,  and  I  think  the  remark  is  a  just  one,  that  the 
incidents  which  occurred  in  the  history  of  our  Lord's  life,  are  not 
only  so  many  facts  which  demonstrate  his  power  and  his  compassion, 
but  facts  which  also  embody  the  great  principles  of  his  mediatorial 
administration.  To  illustrate  this,  allow  me  to  appeal  to  another  inter- 
esting incident  in  his  history.  There  stood  in  his  presence  a  man  with 
a  withered  arm  ;  his  hand  hung  by  his  side.  There  he  stood  ;  it  was 
enough  for  him  to  stand  there.  His  useless  arm  bespoke  the  com- 
passion of  the  Redeemer.  And  what  did  the  Redeemer  do,  or  rather, 
what  did  he  say  ?  "  Stretch  forth  thy  hand."  Now  suppose  that 
man  had  acted  as  you  have  ;  suppose  he  had  said,  "  How  can  I  stretch 
forth  my  withered  arm  ?  I  cannot  use  it  —  the  use  of  the  muscles  is 
gone.  I  have  no  power  ;  give  me  power,  and  then  I  will  move.  Per- 
form an  act,  and  then  I  will  obey  the  command.     Till  that  is  done,  I 


S12  THE  ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

will  do  nothing."  If  the  man  had  talked  like  this,  had  he  lived  until 
this  time,  his  arm  would  have  been  hanging  by  his  side,  as  when  he 
first  appeared  in  the  presence  of  his  Redeemer.  But  no,  that  man 
acted  upon  the  principle  of  self-preservation,  which  is,  in  fact,  the  prin- 
ciple of  self-interest.  He  made  an  effort ;  he  stretched  forth  his  hand 
and  it  was  healed.  Here  we  see  the  principle  on  which  the  Son  of 
God  acts.  We  are  not  only  invited  but  commanded  to  come  to  him, 
and  when  the  command  is  obeyed,  the  result  is  secure.  "  Come  unto 
me,"  says  Christ,  "and  be  ye  saved;"  but  men  will  not  come,  and 
though  the  reasons  why  they  will  not  may  vary,  the  issue  is  precisely 
the  same.  And  I  would  say  that  this  refusal  to  come  to  Jesus  Christ 
and  be  saved,  is  an  act  so  extraordinary  that  I  hardly  know  how  to 
account  for  it.  It  strikes  me  as  something  very  singular  that  human 
nature  does  not  feel  a  deep  and  an  overpowering  interest  in  making 
preparation  against  a  future  and  a  changeless  state  of  existence.  How 
is  it,  my  friends,  you  think  of  to-morrow  ?  The  child  at  school  carries 
on  his  imagination  to  a  period  when  he  shall  go  to  a  business  or 
profession.  The  youth,  in  passing  through  the  early  stages  of  prepar- 
ation, carries  his  mind  forward  to  a  time  when  he  shall  breathe  the  air 
of  liberty,  and  become  a  master  in  his  own  person.  The  young 
tradesman,  who  meets  with  difficulties  and  discouragements,  passes  on 
to  a  future  stage  of  existence,  anticipates  the  hour  when  he  shall  rise 
above  all  which  now  oppresses,  and  perchance,  as  he  revels  amid  the 
creations  of  his  own  fancy,  imagines  that  he  shall  sit  beneath  his  own 
vine  and  his  own  fig-tree  in  the  eventide  of  his  life,  there  to  enjoy  the 
reward  of  his  early  exertions  and  labors.  And  who  condemns  man  for 
this? 

"Man  never  is,  but  always  to  be  blest." 

He  passes  from  the  present  hour  to  the  future,  but  unhappily  bounds 
his  anticipations  within  the  narrow  limits  of  time.  It  strikes  me  as 
marvellously  singular  that  our  nature  does  not  pass  the  grand  boundary 
into  futurity,  and  feel  a  deep  interest  in  the  solution  of  this  question, 
"  What  will  become  of  me  after  fife  has  been  surrendered  to  the  claims 
of  death  ?  " 

Again,  my  brethren,  when  the  sin  of  humanity,  and  consequent 
danger,  is  so  palpable  that  it  cannot  be  disputed,  it  strikes  me  as 
marvellously  singular  that  man  does  not  feel  a  deep  interest  in  ascer- 
taining how  the  sentence  can  be  repealed  and  his  condition  changed. 
I  presume  that  there  are  some  present  who  have  sometimes  been  at 
the  Old  Bailey  and  attended  to  the  trials  of  the  prisoners.  Perhaps  on 
a  capital  offence  you  heard  the  verdict  of  guilty  pronounced  and  saw 
the  poor  felon  led  from  the  dock  in  possession  of  his  life.     But  it  is  not 


COMING   TO    CHRIST.  313 

his  own  ;  he  lives  now  for  another,  and  he  lives  only  against  the  day 
of  execution.  His  life  he  holds  in  trust,  not  for  his  own  benefit  but 
for  the  benefit  of  the  injured  and  violated  law  of  his  sovereign.  Now, 
suppose,  after  attending  such  a  trial  as  this,  after  hearing  the  verdict 
and  seeing  the  poor  man  led  back  to  his  cell,  after  waiting  the  day  of 
execution,  hearing  the  solemn  bell  toll — the  culprit  on  the  platform, 
his  arms  tied  behind  him,  the  executioner  of  death  busy  in  performing 
his  official  duties,  just  stepping  back  to  draw  the  fatal  bolt,  standing 
by  the  side  of  the  sovereign  of  the  empire  —  suppose  you  should  turn 
round  and  ask  this  question,  "  Why  is  that  poor  unhappy  man  permitted 
to  die  ?  "  and  the  sovereign  should  say,  because  he  will  not  ask  for 
pardon  —  that  is  the  reason.  Had  he  done  it,  he  would  have  lived  ; 
had  he  done  it,  I  would  have  repealed  the  sentence ;  had  he  done  it, 
the  execution  now  just  about  to  take  place  would  never  have  been 
witnessed.  I  have  sent  to  him,  I  have  entreated  him,  I  have  urged 
him,  I  have  promised  to  restore  his  life  to  his  possession,  and  I  have 
promised  even  to  confer  superior  favors  upon  him,  but  no,  he  chooses 
death  rather  than  life.  What  would  you  say  ?  The  bolt  is  drawn  — 
the  drop  falls  —  there  he  struggles  ;  —  what  would  you  say  ?  The 
man  was  not  only  guilty  of  imbruing  his  hands  in  his  brother's  blood, 
but  he  was  also  guilty  of  imbruing  them  in  his  own,  because  he  would 
not  ask  his  sovereign  to  save  that  life  which  he  had  forfeited.  He  was, 
therefore,  a  double  murderer,  first,  for  slaying  his  brother,  and  secondly, 
for  slaying  himself.  He  dies  and  he  incurs  an  awfvd  amount  of  guilt 
by  not  asking  for  the  life  which  was  forfeited.  And  I  appeal  to  you, 
my  brethren,  if  your  condition  is  not  exactly  analogous,  though  attended 
with  more  awful  and  appalling  circumstances  than  those  with  which  my 
imagination  has  invested  this  never  witnessed  scene.  Your  life  is 
forfeited  to  the  violated  laws  of  your  supreme  sovereign.  Mercy  is 
offered  to  you :  you  are  commanded  to  come  and  accept  it.  But  no 
—  you  will  not  come  to  Jesus  Christ  that  you  might  have  life.  You 
choose  to  perish  rather  than  to  pray.  You  choose  to  live  in  sin  and 
accumulate  fresh  guilt  rather  than  to  come  to  him  to  be  saved,  who 
came  into  the  world  to  seek  and  to  save  them  that  are  lost.  And 
should  this  be  your  case,  my  brethren,  allow  me  to  say  you  will  never 
forget  your  decision,  nor  will  the  result  of  that  decision  ever  be  for- 
given. If  you  will  not  come  to  Jesus  Christ  for  life,  you  will  not  have 
it.  There  is  no  intermediate  condition  between  the  possession  of  eter- 
nal happiness  and  the  infliction  of  eternal  woe.  There  is  no  midway 
■where  the  human  soul  can  exist  alternately,  partaking  of  an  intermix- 
ture of  good  and  of  evil,  of  misery  and  of  bliss,  the  one  modifying  and 
correcting  the  other ;  for  if  you  neglect  this  great  salvation  escape  is 


^14  THE  ENGLISH  PUI4PIT. 

impossible.  Nor,  mj  friends,  is  it  necessary  that  you  should  summon 
up  your  soul  deliberately  to  the  determination,  "  I  will  not  come." 
You  may  not  come  without  deciding  by  any  formal  act  that  you  will 
not.  I  wish  you  would  brace  up  your  mind  to  firmness  here.  Come 
to  the  decision,  "  I  will  not  come  to  Christ  to  be  saved."  Follow  my 
advice  when  you  go  home.  Have  you  an  album  ?  Write  in  it,  "I 
will  not  come  to  Christ  to  be  saved."  If  you  have  not  this  fashion- 
able depository  of  what  is  pleasing  or  striking,  get  a  piece  of  paper 
that  will  withstand  the  mouldering  influence  of  time  and  write  on  it, 
"  Date,  the  12th  of  September,  1841,  —  I  will  not  come  to  Christ  to 
be  saved."  Sign  your  name.  Do  it  —  do  it  to-night,  and  then  retire 
to  rest.  Make  the  experiment — be  honest  for  once.  Let  your  mind 
see  itself  and  know  your  own  decision.  Practice  deception  on  your- 
self no  longer.  Courage  !  courage !  courage,  man  !  and  then  see 
whether  the  re-action  of  your  own  courage  will  not  intimidate  you. 
Try  the  experiment  whether  a  firmness  in  evil  will  not  even  shake  a 
determination  to  live  under  the  awful  spell  and  delusion.  But  it  is  not 
necessary  that  you  should  do  this  formally,  though  I  would  rather  you 
would  do  so  than  live  on  as  you  have  lived  without  coming  to  Christ, 
and  without  thinking  about  it.  If  you  do  not  come  the  issue  is  certain 
• —  the  loss  of  the  soul.  A  few  winters  ago,  in  passing  from  my  chapel 
to  my  own  house,  residing  as  I  do  three  miles  from  it  in  the  country,  I 
rode  along  with  the  coachman,  he  had  not  his  lamps,  the  night  was 
excessively  dark,  and  I  looked  and  could  see  nothing,  all  was  gloom. 
I  arrived  at  home  in  safety,  I  had  my  supper  ;  my  family  knelt  at  the 
altar  of  devotion,  and  I  retired  to  rest ;  I  fell  asleep.  It  will  not  sur- 
prise you  to  hear,  my  brethren,  that  ray  imagination  retained  some- 
what of  the  impressions  I  received  in  passing  through  this  palpable 
darkness.  I  dreamt  that  I  was  in  the  dark  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
death,  and  I  dreamt  that  I  was  there  alone.  I  saw  no  object  to  af- 
fright me,  I  heard  no  sound  to  appall  me,  but  I  was  alone  ;  I  was  alone 
in  a  strange  place  ;  I  was  alone,  and  the  strangeness  of  the  place,  its 
awful  stillness  awoke  me,  and  tears  of  joy  fell  from  my  eyes  to  think 
it  Avas  only  a  dreara,  nothing  more  than  a  dream.  0,  man,  to  you, 
dying  without  coming  to  Christ  for  salvation,  it  will  be  a  reality,  not  of 
stillness,  not  of  unbroken  quietude  —  0  no  !  hell  from  beneath  will 
move  to  meet  you  at  your  coming.  The  lost  soul  will  sink  for  ever 
and  forever  among  lost  spirits  and  devils.  To  you  it  will  be  a  reality, 
and  this  issue  as  it  will  be  a  reality,  so  it  will  not  be  forgiven.  "  Think 
not,"  says  Jesus  Christ  at  the  close  of  this  chapter,  "  that  I  will  ac- 
cuse you."     No,  it  will  not  be  necessary  for  Jesus  Christ  to  accuse 


COMING   TO    CHRIST.  315 

you  on  your  passing  into  the  eternal  world.     If  jou  die  under  the 
sentence  of  condemnation,  and  are  lost,  you  will  accuse  yourself. 

I  was  engaged  the  other  evening  in  conducting  a  reHgious  service 
at  West  Bromwich  ;  it  was  on  Tuesday  evening.  The  minister  of  the 
place,  just  before  the  service  commenced,  said,  "  Last  Sabbath  morn- 
ing, sir,  in  that  pew  sat  one  of  my  hearers,  looking  unusually  well ; 
but  he  is  dead,  sir ;  he  died  this  morning,  suddenly."  Ah,  my  friends, 
as  you  have  never  died,  you  think  that  you  never  shall.  If  you  had 
experienced  this  great  event,  and  were  permitted  to  step  back  into 
life  to  correct  the  errors  of  which  you  have  been  guilty,  you  would 
learn  wisdom  from  experience.  But  no,  death  has  never  come,  Bnd 
therefore  you  think  it  is  yet  at  a  remote  distance.  This  may  be  the 
last  Sabbath  you  will  ever  Uve,  the  last  service  you  may  ever  attend, 
the  last  appeal  you  may  ever  hear.  You  may  go  home,  and  ere  to 
morrow  you  may  be  in  eternity.  And  if  it  should  be  the  case,  will 
you  forget  this  scene  ?  If  it  should  be  the  case,  will  you  ever  forgive 
yourself  ?  Will  you  not  have  to  reproach  yourself  fol'ever  and  ever  ? 
Suppose,  my  friends,  excuse  the  extravagance  of  the  conception,  sup- 
pose you  had  existed  before  you  came  into  being,  and  suppose  that  you 
then  had  permission  to  elect  the  condition  in  which  you  should  exist, 
and  suppose  that,  owing  either  to  a  want  of  reflection  or  to  your  not 
taking  the  advice  of  wisdom,  you  had  elected  a  condition  of  degrada- 
tion and  of  wretchedness,  so  that  you  had  lived  all  through  life  a  poor 
instead  of  a  rich  man,  a  man  in  sickness,  instead  of  a  man  in  health, 
would  you  ever  have  forgiven  yourself?  Would  you  not  from  the 
dawn  of  reason  to  the  close  of  life,  have  reproached  yourself  with  hav- 
ing made  such  a  choice,  instead  of  taking  the  advice  of  wisdom  ?  Yes, 
you  would  have  said,  "  It  is  my  own  fault,  I  elected  the  condition  of 
existence  ;  I  have  what  I  chose."  It  is  an  awful  choice  indeed,  3'our 
own  life  or  death  for  ever  is  now  placed  before  you  —  decide,  decide, 
my  friend  —  decision  is  your  own  act.  Make  a  wrong  choice,  you 
will  not  only  never  forget  it,  you  will  never  forgive  it.  And  for  a  man 
to  sin  against  himself,  to  ^place  himself  in  a  condition  where  the  exer- 
cise of  mercy  on  himself  is  absolutely  impossible,  will  be  to  give  an 
additional  pang  to  every  sensation  of  remorse,  and  a  keener  despair  in 
a  condition  from  which  nothing  will  ever  be  able  to  release  him.  0 
that  the  God  of  all  grace  may  breathe  upon  your  spirits  to-night,  for 
the  Redeemer's  sake,  Amen. 


316 

SERMON   XXVI. 

THE    WISDOM    OF    WINNING    SOULS. 

BY  REV.  JAMES  SHERSIAN. 
"He  that  winneth  souls  is  wise."  —  Proverbs  xi.  30. 

Behold,  teachers,  your  -work !  It  is  to  "  win  souls."  Behold  the 
encomium  put  upon  that  work  !  "  ^e  that  winneth  souls  is  wise." 
And  this  is  an  encomium,  pronounced  by  lips  which  cannot  err,  and  by 
one  who  never  flatters. 

You  are  some  of  the  representatives  of  the  schools  of  Britain,  which 
contain  within  their  number  more  than  two  millions  of  these  souls.  To 
you  is  entrusted  their  religious  training,  the  formation  of  their  charac- 
ters, their  habits,  and  their  hopes.  Oh  !  how  responsible  —  how  tre- 
mendously responsible  is  the  position,  which  some  persons  occupy  ! 
The  eyes  of  the  church  are  directed  to  you,  as  instruments  of  pour- 
ing new  blood  into  it,  when  it  is  exhausted  —  of  planting  young  trees, 
from  your  nurseries,  in  the  vineyard  of  the  Church.  The  eyes  of  the 
Church  are  upon  you,  to  bring  about  such  a  state  of  things,  in  the 
coming  generation,  as  shall  introduce  the  millennium,  and  make  the 
earth  once  more  God's  paradise.  And  if  you  are  faithful  to  your 
trust,  God  shall  honor  you  with  this  exalted  result  —  "  He  that  win- 
neth souls  is  wise." 

The  timid  and  the  fearful  may,  therefore,  be  greatly  encouraged  in 
their  work,  by  this  statement ;  and  I  hope  I  may  hereafter  be  able,  in 
the  course  of  this  sermon,  to  show,  that  although  they  may  not  now  see 
the  wisdom  or  fruit  of  their  exertions,  God  shall  show  both,  by-and-by. 

Brethren,  the  times  indicate  a  remarkable  fulfilment  of  that  proph- 
ecy—  "Many  shall  run  to  and  fro,  and  knowledge  shall  be  in- 
creased." Science  and  literature  never  had  so  many  patrons,  as  they 
have  now ;  real  reUgion  never  had  so  many  friends,  as  she  has  now, 
notwithstanding  the  declensions  visible  in  some  churches,  and  in  some 
individuals.  Everything  seems  progressing,  with  remarkable  rapidity, 
to  a  crisis  or  conclusion,  of  a  remarkable  character.  And  those  are 
wise,  in  Scripture  estimation,  who  aid  this  great  progression,  as  it  is 
going  forward. 

He  who  helps  others,  by  schemes  and  inventions,  to  grow  wealthy, 
is  reckoned  wise  in  his  generation ;  he  who  first  made  a  locomotive 


WISDOM   OF   WINNING   SOULS.  317 

engine,  and  brought  railways  to  perfection,  to  accelerate  our  speed, 
from  one  place  or  country  to  another,  was  thought  wise  in  his  genera- 
tion ;  he  who  imparts  learning  to  youth,  to  fit  them  for  usefulness  to 
man,  and  for  holding  important  situations  in  the  government,  is  justly 
honored  as  wise  ;  he  who  heals  disease,  restores  health,  and  prolongs 
life  to  individuals,  is  sought  after,  as  one  who  is  wise  ;  and  the  indi- 
vidual, who  lives  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  that  to  a  sorrowing  suitor, 
which  fraud  has  taken  away  from  him,  is  estimated  by  the  man,  when 
he  puts  his  foot  on,  as  he  thought,  his  once  forfeited  estate,  as  one  of 
the  wisest  men  in  the  world  for  him. 

Now  all  these  things  are  united  in  your  own  characteristic.  Your 
object  and  your  labor,  if  you  understand  it  aright,  is  to  win  the  soul. 
You  are  to  teach  that  soul  how  to  grow  rich  ;  your  invention  is  to  be 
taxed,  to  accelerate  it  in  its  speed  from  earth  to  heaven ;  you  are  to 
instruct  it,  in  the  great,  wondrous,  and  almighty  science  of  salvation  ; 
you  are  to  administer  gospel  remedies,  to  heal  its  moral  maladies,  and 
to  prolong  its  joyful  days  ;  and  you  are  to  restore  it  to  "  an  inherit- 
ance," that  is  "  incorruptible,  and  undefiled,  and  fadeth  not  away, 
which  it  hath  lost,  and  to  carry  the  case  from  court  to  court,  till  you 
see  that  soul  settled  in  Canaan  for  ever.  0  God,  what  wisdom,  what 
grace,  what  zeal,  and  what  help  from  thee,  does  such  a  work  as  this 
require  !  He,  my  brethren,  is  no  teacher,  who  does  not  aim  at  this  ; 
he  does  not  deserve  the  name  of  a  teacher. 

Teachers,  I  want  you  not  to  aim  at  anything  new  ;  neither  shall  I, 
in  the  address,  which  I  am  about  to  deliver  to  you,  —  but  shall  simply 
endeat or  to  put  you  in  remembrance  of  the  great  things,  which  you 
have  in  hand,  and  the  great  duties,  which  you  have  to  perform.  Pray 
for  me,  and  pray  for  yourselves,  that  your  reward  and  your  work  may 
both  vividly  appear  before  you. 

I  shall  therefore  ask  your  attention,  first,  to  the  subjects,  about 
whom  you  are  to  be  unspeakably  interested  :  "  souls,"  human  souls, 
young  souls.  Secondly,  I  am  to  point  out  to  you  the  manner  in 
which  that  interest  is  to  be  expressed ;  you  are  to  endeavor  to 
"  win  souls."  And  then,  thirdly,  I  will  endeavor  to  place  before 
you  the  estimate  which  God  puts  upon  all  eiforts,  thus  exercised, 
for  the  accomplishment  of  this  purpose  :  "  He  that  winneth  souls 
is  wise." 

I.  First,  let  us  look  at  the  subjects,  about  whom  you  are  to  be  un- 
speakably interested.     They  are  "  souls." 

Let  us  now  look  at  what  a  soul  is,  in  three  aspects. 


318  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

1.  Let  US  now  look  at  it,  first,  in  its  structure.  It  is  a  living  thing, 
distinct  and  separate  from  the  body.  Matter  is  -wholly  passive  ;  it  can- 
not act,  or  move,  or  think,  without  this  vital  spirit.  "  The  body,  with- 
out the  spirit,  is  dead."  Take  mere  matter,  compound  it,  alter  it, 
and  divide  it,  as  you  will,  yet  you  cannot  make  it  see,  or  hear,  or  feel, 
or  think  rationally.  But  though  the  soul  acts  with  the  body,  it  is  dis- 
tinct from  the  body  ;  for  Dives  was  in  hell,  while  his  body  was  carried, 
in  state  and  pomp,  in  the  funeral ;  Lazarus  was  resting  in  Abraham's 
bosom,  while  the  poor,  wretched  carcase  was  cast  out  to  the  dogs,  who 
had  formerly  "  Hcked  his  sores ;  "  the  penitent  thief  was  with  Christ  in 
paradise,  while  his  body  was  suspended  on  the  cross ;  and  this  has 
been,  and  will  be,  the  comfort  of  the  saints,  as  long  as  the  earth  lasts, 
that  when  they  are  "  absent  from  the  body,"  they  are  "  present  with 
the  Lord." 

The  human  soul  is  spiritual  and  immaterial ;  it  is  not  compounded, 
or  made  up  of  the  most  subtle  matter ;  it  cannot  be  touched,  or  han- 
dled, or  divided,  as  bodies  can.  "  Handle  me  and  see,"  said  Christ, 
"  for  a  spirit  hath  not  flesh  and  bones,  as  ye  see  Me  have." 

It  is  immortal,  and  cannot  be  destroyed  ;  it  has  no  seeds  of  death 
within  it,  as  our  bodies  have.  Corruption,  it  is  true,  afflicts  the  soul, 
spoils  its  beauty,  and  damages  its  powers  ;  but  it  cannot  reduce  it  to 
its  original  nothing.  A  soul  has  a  beginning,  but  no  end  —  a  birth- 
day, but  no  dying  day. 

Its  powers  and  capabilities  are  some  of  the  most  wonderful  things, 
which  ever  could  engage  our  imagination.  Why,  what  can  a  soul  do  ? 
It  can  ascertain  the  relative  size,  nature,  and  properties  of  all  the  won- 
ders of  creation  —  from  the  monad,  several  millions  of  which  may  be 
found  in  a  single  drop  of  Avater,  to  the  behemoth,  which  destroys  men 
and  cattle,  and  the  varied  productions  of  the  earth  ;  it  can  mount  up 
to  heaven,  and  ascertain  the  motion  of  the  planets,  foretell  the  eclipses 
of  the  sun  and  moon  to  a  second  of  time,  count  the  stars,  and  discern 
the  system,  by  which  they  are  governed :  it  can  invent  the  most  inge- 
nious and  useful  productions,  for  the  service  of  man,  and  even  for  the 
destruction  of  its  own  species  ;  it  can  penetrate  the  secrets  of  hidden 
nature,  and  abstract  from  the  bowels  of  the  earth  the  greatest  riches 
and  wonders ;  it  can  trace,  survey,  and  enjoy  the  beauties,  the  won- 
ders, and  the  glories  of  redeeming  love  ;  it  can  hold  fellowship  with 
the  Deity,  as  a  man  holds  fellowship  with  his  friend ;  it  can  revolu- 
tionize the  feehngs,  and  hopes,  and  joys  of  myriads  of  individuals,  and  ^ 
turn  the  world  upside  down,  in  its  tendencies,  and  in  its  actions ;  it 
can  make  the  men,  who  by  vice  have  become  like  demons,  by  its 
agencies  and  instructions,  act  like  the  sons  of  God,  and  the  friends  of 


WISDOM    OF   WINNING    SOULS.  319 

heaven  ;  and  above  all  this,  it  is  capable  of  an  immediate  vision  from 
Almighty  God,  of  living  in  the  presence  of  God,  and  of  serving  him 
in  his  temple,  for  ever  and  ever. 

A  man's  soul  is  his  all.  Take  this  from  him,  and  he  is  but  a  life- 
less, and  soon  becomes  a  formless  mass  of  corruption  itself.  Or  let  its 
powers  be  deranged,  so  that  he  is  an  idiot  or  a  lunatic  ;  and  what  is 
the  man  then  ?  Nay,  only  derange  its  comforts,  and  let  anxiety  prey 
upon  the  spirit ;  and  what  is  he  then  ?  His  soul,  in  its  powers  and  its 
influences,  is  his  all  —  the  chief  part,  the  honor,  the  dignity,  and  the 
glory  of  man. 

Now  this  is  the  object,  about  which  you  are  to  be  interested.  Is  it 
not  worthy  of  your  interest  ? 

2.  And  come  from  a  view  of  its  structure,  to  view  it,  secondly,  in 
its  lost  estate.  Our  Savior  says,  that  this  soul  is  lost.  "  What  shall 
it  pront  a  man,  if  he  gain  the  whole  world,  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?  " 
Then  it  is  capable  of  being  lost ;  and  if  it  continue  in  its  present  state, 
it  is  lost."  "  The  Son  of  Man  has  come  to  seek  and  save  that  which 
was  lost."  Hence  he  describes  himself  under  the  figure  of  a  shep- 
herd, going  over  the  mountains,  seeking  for  a  lost  sheep,  and  rejoicing 
when  he  has  recovered  his  sheep. 

Originally,  mark,  this  soul  was  a  pure  spirit ;  it  was  created  in  the 
perfect  image,  and  living  hkeness  of  its  Creator,  "  in  righteousness  and 
true  holiness  ;  "  but  now  it  has  lost  this  holiness,  and  has  nothing  but 
impurity.  "  Out  of  the  heart  proceed  evil  thoughts,  murders,  adul- 
teries, fornications,  thefts,  false  witness,  blasphemies :  these  are  the 
things  which  defile  a  man."  It  has  lost  its  innocence,  and  now  has 
nothing  but  impurity.  "  Out  of  the  heart  proceed  evil  thoughts,  mur- 
ders, adulteries,  fornications,  thefts,  false  witness,  blasphemies :  these 
are  tlic  things  which  defile  a  man."  It  has  lost  its  innocence,  and 
now  has  nothing  but  guilt ;  for  "  all  the  world  is  condemned  before 
God."  It  has  lost  its  wisdom,  and  now  has  nothing  but  ignorance  ; 
"  being  alienated  from  the  life  of  God  through  the  ignorance  that  is 
in  it."  It  has  lost  its  communion,  and  has  now  nothing  but  distance  ; 
"  far  from  God,  by  wicked  works."  It  has  lost  its  comfort,  and  has 
now  nothing  but  fear ;  "  my  flesh  trembleth  for  fear  of  thee,  and  I 
am  afraid  of  thy  judgments."  It  has  lost  its  paradise,  and  has  now 
nothing  to  look  forward  to,  but  hell ;  for  "  the  wicked  shall  be  turned 
into  hell,  and  all  the  nations  that  forget  God." 

And  here  let  no  teacher  say,  "  These  passages  and  applications  may 
do  very  well  for  adults,  but  what  have  they  to  do  with  children  ?  " 
Thus  much  have  they  to  do  with  children :  "  Death  hath  reigned  over 
all,  even  those  who  have  not  sinned  after  the  similitude  of  Adam's 


320  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

transgression."  And  see  the  evil  passions  of  children  ;  see,  almost  as 
soon  as  thej  can  talk  and  walk,  what  proof  thej  give  you  of  their 
having  lost  souls  !  I  undertake  not  to  tell  you,  (and  perhaps  you  will 
not  require  me,)  when  the  responsibihty  of  a  child  commences  ;  that  is 
a  question  with  which  we  have  nothing  whatever  to  do  ;  God  will  settle 
it  with  you,  and  with  the  world,  by-and-by  ;  it  is  no  part  of  your  work ; 
therefore  leave  it  entirely  with  him.  You  have  proofs  that  they  have 
lost  the  image  and  likeness  of  God  ;  and  that  is  the  great  thing  which 
you  have  to  bear  in  mind. 

Now  behold,  in  the  entire  school  to  which  you  belong,  there  are  five 
hundred  lost  souls  to  excite  your  sympathy ;  souls,  which  if  they  be  not 
regenerated  and  pardoned,  must  perish  for  ever  ;  souls,  once  the  temples 
of  God,  but  now  in  ruins  —  once  decorated  over  with  all  the  emblems 
of  righteousness  and  glory,  but  now  defaced  and  dishonored ;  souls, 
which  have  not  lost  a  single  fragment  of  their  powers,  though  those 
powers  are  deranged,  and  therefore  lost  to  the  original  intention  of  their 
creation.  And  what  was  that  ?  To  serve  and  please  God.  To  this 
great  end  they  are  lost  ;  "  they  are  all  gone  out  of  the  way ;  there  is 
none  that  doeth  good,  no,  not  one  ;  "  "I  was  shapen  in  iniquity,  and 
in  sin  did  my  mother  conceive  me."  Can  a  heart  take  a  glance  over 
a  school,  feeling  this  great  fact,  and  not  compassionate  the  case  of  a 
soul? 

3.  Then,  thirdly,  take  another  view  of  these  subjects ;  look  at  them 
as  capable  of  being  recovered.  Blessed  be  God,  a  lost  soul  is  not  past 
recovery,  while  it  remains  upon  the  earth.  That  child,  which  is  so 
wayward,  and  gives  you  so  much  trouble  —  that  boy,  about  whom  your 
anxieties  are  excited,  and  who  seems  to  be  fast  arriving  at  manhood, 
and  developing  all  the  powers  of  his  mind,  more  like  a  devil  than  a 
man, —  is  not  hopelessly  lost.     Oh  !  the  comfort  of  this  thought ! 

Let  us  ask  the  question  —  "Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  the 
Lord,  and  bow  myself  before  the  high  God  ?  shall  I  come  before  him 
with  burnt  oflferings,  with  calves  of  a  year  old  ?  will  the  Lord  be  pleased 
with  thousands  of  rams,  or  with  ten  thousands  of  rivers  of  oil  ?  shall  I 
give  my  first-born  for  my  transgression,  the  fruit  of  my  body  for  the 
sin  of  my  soul  ?  "  No  ;  this  is  too  low  a  price  for  the  soul,  to  restore 
it.  "  We  are  not  redeemed  with  corruptible  things,  as  silver  and  gold," 
of  which  there  is  abundance  in  the  earth.  No,  that  is  not  enough : 
God's  justice  cannot  be  satisfied  with  a  bribe  ;  his  law  must  be  vindi- 
cated, his  righteousness  acknowledged,  and  his  attributes,  in  their  glory, 
proclaimed  throughout  all  worlds  ;  and  therefore  the  scheme  of  redemp- 
tion is  his  own. 

I  am  afraid  we  get  into  the  habit  of  repeating  passages  to  the  chil- 


TVTSDOM   OF   WINNING   SOULS.  321 

dren,  and  to  ourselves,  and  hearing  them  from  the  pulpit  so  often,  till 
we  forget  their  value  and  their  sweetness.  Now  strive,  teachers,  to 
enter  into  this  passage,  and  to  feel  its  force  to-night :  "  God  so  loved 
the  world,  that  he  gave  his  onlj-begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth 
in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life."  Here  the  claims 
of  justice  are  not  sacrificed  at  the  shrine  of  mercy,  and  here  the  cries 
of  mercy  are  not  powerless  at  the  shrine  of  justice  ;  "  mercy  and  truth 
meet  together,  righteousness  and  peace  embrace  each  other."  "  Christ 
hath  redeemed  us  from  the  curse  of  the  law,  being  made  a  curse  for 
us."  And  what  then  ?  "  We  joy  in  God,  through  Jesus  Christ,  our 
Lord,  by  whom  we  have  received  the  atonement." 

How,  then,  is  a  soul  saved  ?  By  believing  in,  relying  on,  and  ac- 
cepting this  atonement  —  by  having  it  so  presented  and  so  applied,  that 
it  shall  welcome  it,  as  a  remedy  to  his  own  state.  Not  making  an 
atonement ;  (never  teach  your  children  that)  —  that  is  done  for  ever, 
and  done  completely.  All  the  child  has  to  do  as  well  as  yourself,  is, 
to  receive  what  God  has  provided,  and  accept  the  remedy,  which  his 
mercy  has  prepared  ;  and  after  he  has  received  the  one,  and  accepted 
the  other,  he  loves  the  atonement,  delights  in  it,  is  pleased  with  it,  and 
instrumentally  strives  to  save  and  to  bless  others,  as  he  himself  has 
been  saved  and  blessed.  And  when  the  race  is  run,  heaven  is  regain- 
ed,  and  the  soul  enters  into  it,  to  live  with  God,  who  has  thus  saved 
it,  for  ever  and  ever. 

Teachers,  your  work  is,  to  present  that  atonement.  God  forgive 
you,  if  you  do  not  do  it,  or  if  you  put  it  into  the  background,  in  any 
way  !  This  is  the  good  news,  the  glad  tidings,  which  fills  the  souls  of 
men  with  hope  and  joy  —  that  "  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world,  to 
save  sinners."  Give  it,  in  its  fulness  and  freeness,  to  the  children  ; 
talk  about  it  to  them ,  till  you  feel  your  own  hearts  glowing  with  love 
to  Him  who  accomplished  it,  —  and  then  you  warm  others,  with  the 
very  warmth  of  your  own,  as  you  sensibly  enjoy  it. 

Teachers,  this  is  your  work  —  to  try  to  win  this  soul ;  to  set  before 
it  that  remedy,  and  to  win  that  soul  to  accept  and  rejoice  in  that 
Savior.     Do  you  not  think  you  are  greatly  honored  ? 

II.  But  I  now  pass  to  the  second  part  of  my  discourse,  and  will 
endeavor  to  show  you  the  efforts  which  you  are  to  make  for  these  sub- 
jects.    "  He  that  winneth  souls  is  wise." 

Let  us  now  apply  this  "  winning,"  both  to  the  mamier  and  to  the 
result. 

1.  Let  us  look  at  it,  first,  as  to  the  manner,  in  which  we  are  to  win 
these  souls.  To  "  win "  suggests  something  more  than  mere  labor. 
21 


322  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

To  "  win,"  a  thing,  implies  the  exercise  of  ingenuity,  as  those  who  win 
at  a  game  of  play  ;  a  certain  power,  as  those  who  win  by  conquest ; 
an  adaptation  of  the  best  means  suited  to  the  object,  as  those  who  win 
compUance  by  persuasion  ;  an  indomitable  perseverance,  as  those  who 
will  never  give  up  a  conquest,  till  they  have  obtained  the  victory ;  and 
a  rule  and  order,  by  which  you  are  to  proceed,  as  legal  and  prescribed, 
in  order  that  you  may  win  the  crown,  that  is  set  before  you  —  "for  a 
man  is  not  crowned,  unless  he  strive  lawfully."  So,  then,  you  are  to 
win. 

And  if  you  will  do  this  aright,  the  first  thing  you  have  to  do,  in 
order  to  win  their  souls,  is  to  win  their  attention.  Ingenuity  may 
honorably  tax  itself  here.  Your  voice,  your  manner,  your  habits,  if 
you  would  be  good  teachers,  must  all  be  adapted  to  win.  If  your 
voice  is  not  good,  you  must  aim,  as  Demosthenes  did,  to  make  it  bet- 
ter ;  who  went  to  the  sea-shore,  while  the  winds  were  roaring  and  rag- 
ing, and  recited  his  themes  there,  with  pebbles  in  his  mouth,  to  cure 
his  impediments.  If  your  habits  are  rough  or  uncourteous,  you  must 
mend  them,  if  you  would  be  good  teachers.  If  your  manner  of  teach- 
ing is  not  that  which  impresses  your  own  mind,  as  best  adapted  to  im- 
press the  mind,  and  catch  the  heart  of  a  child,  that  manner  must  be 
improved,  from  good  patterns,  which  are  presented  to  you.  Do  not 
look  at  these  patterns  with  an  evil  eye,  and  with  jealousy,  but  stoop  to 
imitate,  wherever  they  are  good  and  excellent,  and  you  shall  find  the 
advantage  of  them. 

Children  are  not  stones  or  ciphers  ;  they  are  naturally  lively.  We 
always  think  there  is  something  the  matter  with  children,  when  they 
sit  down  by  themselves  all  day,  and  do  not  open  their  mouths  and 
prattle  to  those  around  them.  Who  would  wish  a  child's  tongue  to  be 
still,  or  its  hmbs  to  be  fixed  ?  And  therefore  instniction,  to  win,  must 
be  adapted  to  their  habits.  Dull,  cold,  prosy,  long  lectures  to  a  child ! 
Why,  teachers,  if  you  attempt  this  mode,  half  your  time  in  your  class 
will  be  taken  up  by  telling  the  children  to  sit  still,  not  to  be  fidgety, 
and  not  to  move  about.  They  cannot  help  it ;  you  are  lulHng  them 
into  this  very  state,  by  your  dry  manner. 

Oh !  sirs,  there  is  much  tact,  as  well  as  learning,  required  to  win 
the  attention,  especially  of  a  child.  Go  to  an  Infant  School,  and  see 
the  methods  adopted  there.  What  little  child,  that  can  walk;  feels 
weary  ?  Everything  is  adapted  to  its  capacities  ;  its  attention  is  kept 
awake,  and  it  learns  lessons,  and  has  precepts,  and  psalms,  and  hymns 
there  impressed  upon  its  memory,  which  teaching  by  no  other  means 
can  accomplish.  I  am  not  saying  this  as  exactly  adapted  to  Sunday 
School  instruction  ;  but  tliis  mode  must  be  the  most  useful,  for  it  is  the 


WISDOM   OF   WINNING    SOULS.  323 

first  which  David  prescribes :  "  Come,  ye  children,  hearken  to  me." 
Get  their  attention,  and  you  are  in  a  ready  way  to  get  their  souls ; 
win  their  ears,  and  it  is  one  of  the  doorways  into  their  hearts. 

Then,  secondly,  in  order  to  apply  this,  as  to  the  manner,  you  must 
win  their  affections,  as  well  as  their  attention.  Love  does  wonders. 
If  you  gain  the  heart,  you  have,  naturally  enough,  the  key  to  the 
understanding.  A  teacher  is  not  likely  to  win  a  soul,  whose  love  he 
does  not  win.  Do  you  ever  write  a  senior  scholar  letters,  and  letters 
in  good  English,  well  spelt,  and  not  badly  written  ?  Letters  remain. 
A  child  has  a  letter  —  a  postman  comes  to  the  door,  with  a  letter  for 
Master  Johnson,  or  John  Thomas,  or  Sarah  Speedwell,  from  the 
teacher ;  oh !  the  little  document  is  treasured  up  by  the  child,  as 
something  particularly  precious  ;  and  it  is  its  own.  How  the  news 
goes  through  the  house  directly  — '  I  have  got  a  letter  from  my 
teacher ; '  and  it  is  read,  and  read,  and  read  again,  till  the  sentiments 
contained  there  find  their  way  to  that  child's  heart.  It  shows  the 
child  that  there  is  one  interested  in  its  everlasting  blessedness.  Ah  ! 
when  they  can  say,  '  See  what  an  interest  my  teacher  takes  in  me  ! ' 
You  know  what  the  effect  would  be  upon  yourselves.  There  is  some 
one  of  your  friends  takes  a  particular  interest  in  you  ;  and  what  is  the 
consequence  ?  A  corresponding  feeling  in  your  own  heart,  a  natural 
going  forth  of  your  heart  towards  that  individual.  Would  you,  then, 
gain  the  souls  of  children  ?     You  must  win  their  affections. 

And  then,  in  the  next  place,  you  must  win  their  judgment.  Your 
office  is  to  teach  them  spiritual  things,  —  how  they  may  be  pardoned, 
regenerated,  sanctified,  and  saved.  You  must  endeavor,  then,  to  win 
their  approval  of  these  blessings,  by  showing  them  their  guilt  and 
danger,  and  their  destruction  without  them  ;  and  for  this  purpose,  you 
must  ransack  the  Scripture  of  all  its  similes,  its  stories,  its  illustrations 
of  the  true  effects  of  their  fall,  and  make  them  all  contribute  to  your 
help.  Then  place  before  them  the  necessity  of  Christ's  sacrifice,  its 
merit,  and  its  blessedness  —  that  it  has  appeased  wrath,  and  satisfied 
justice  on  their  behalf ;  and  the  love  of  Christ  and  the  Spirit,  as  ready 
to  save  them.  Faith  will  yield,  if  they  do  but  embrace  these  things. 
And  do  not  be  inclined  to  think,  when  a  child  sometimes  seems  dull, 
as  you  are  stating  these  truths,  that  your  labor  is  lost :  impressions  are 
often  made,  when  least  suspected,  and  revived  after  certain  seasons, 
when  it  was  supposed  they  were  long  since  buried. 

Then,  fourthly,  win  their  confidence.  If  a  child  can  say,  by  seeing 
the  habits  of  the  teacher,  '  My  teacher  wants  to  do  me  good,'  the 
impression  of  that  child  will  naturally  lead  to  confidence  in  that 
teacher.     It  is  said  of  Mr.  Whitefield,  that  individuals  went  to  hear 


824  THE   ENGLISH  PULPJT. 

him  preach,  who  were  careless  about  the  docti'ines  which  he  preached  ; 
but  every  one  that  w^ent  to  hear  him  seemed  to  go  away  with  the  im- 
pression —  That  man  wants  to  do  me  good.  Display  the  exercise  of 
authority,  and  it  will  not  teach  the  children  to  comply  ;  but  only  let 
them  know,  that  you  pray  and  watch  over  them,  and  delight  in  the 
work,  and  that  it  will  be  a  happiness  and  an  honor  to  see  them  saved 
with  yourselves,  and  God  shall  crown  these  eflforts.  It  will  be  the 
readiest  way  to  win  their  souls. 

Oh  !  what  an  opening  this  gives  to  win  them !  They  are  easily  led, 
by  those  in  whom  they  confide  ;  just  as  we  are,  if  we  have  confidence 
in  our  friends'  wisdom  or  kindness.  They  may  say  anything  to  us, 
and  it  is  almost  an  oracle  to  us  ;  we  are  led  on  almost  by  what  they 
say.     And  children  of  larger  growth  feel  this  efiect  unconsciously. 

Fifthly,  if  you  would  win  their  souls,  you  must  win  their  habits.  I 
do  not  know  whether  you  have  been  as  much  impressed,  as  the  preacher 
has  been,  with  the  word  which  Solomon  uses,  with  respect  to  instruc- 
tion: "  Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he  should  go."  Not  only  instruct 
a  child,  because  an  officer  in  the  army  may  instruct  a  recruit  to  no 
purpose  ;  but  training  that  recruit  is  drilling  him  to  habits  of  exercise. 
Now  this  is  the  difference. 

It  is  very  hard  work  to  enforce  those  habits,  which  are  proper  for 
children ;  for  as  soon  as  they  leave  you,  where,  perhaps,  they  have 
only  two  hours'  instruction,  on  a  Sunday  afternoon,  they  probably  go 
home  to  their  wicked  parents  and  friends,  and  the  impression  of  the 
Sabbath's  instruction  is  soon  swept  away.  And  how  little  power  the 
Sunday  School  Teacher  has,  in  the  time  which  is  allotted  for  instruc- 
tion, if  he  use  even  the  best  means  in  his  power,  to  train  these  minds 
into  proper  and  suitable  habits  ! 

Yet  you  must  aim  constantly,  at  training  them  to  habits  of  obedience 
to  yourself,  and  of  obedience  and  regard  to  parents  ;  and  repeatedly 
must  these  be  insisted  upon.  Train  them  to  a  fondness  for  God's 
house,  or  places  where  they  hear  the  truths  of  the  gospel  delivered ; 
train  them  to  forethought,  and  to  prudence  in  their  general  habits,  and 
to  economy  in  life.  I  think  that  in  the  South,  we  are  very  much  be- 
hind the  North,  in  some  societies  which  they  have,  arising,  probably, 
from  children  being  there,  in  factories,  in  much  larger  numbers 
than  we  can  find  them  in  London  or  its  suburbs.  Among  them, 
little  societies,  of  various  kinds,  are  established  ;  such,  for  instance, 
as  a  little  subscription  for  funerals,  for  so  much  to  be  allowed 
them  a  Aveek,  when  they  are  sick,  or  for  so  much  to  be  given,  when 
one  of  them  dies.  And  this  breeds  a  social  disposition  among  the 
children,  and  takes  away  a  great  portion  of  that  selfishness,  which 


WISDOM    OF   WINNING   BOULS.  325 

exists  in  a  very  large  proportion  in  all  our  liearts,  and  teaches  them  to 
care  for  one  another,  as  well  as  provide  for  themselves,  to  a  very  great 
extent. 

Habits  of  this  kind  have,  I  think,  a  wonderful  ejQFect  upon  their 
minds,  as  they  grow  up  in  life  ;  the  children  perceive  the  temporal,  as 
well  as  the  spiritual  interest,  which  the  teacher  took  in  them,  while  he 
was  among  them.  And  just  now,  when  societies  are  rising  up  almost 
everywhere,  one  would  be  delighted  to  see  a  society  for  the  promotion 
of  provident  habits  in  children.  I  hope  the  teachers  will  endeavor  to 
inculcate  the  habits  I  have  mentioned  on  their  children,  if  they  would 
effectually  win  souls. 

2.  But  I  have  been  too  long  upon  this  portion  of  my  subject.  I 
said,  however,  I  would  look  at  it  in  another  aspect ;  and  that  is,  the 
result  of  winning  a  soul. 

A  soul  won,  is  won  for  Christ.  It  is  a  reward  for  his  toil ;  it  is  a 
fruit  of  the  application  of  his  redemption.     He 

" looks  dowu  and  sees 


The  purchase  of  his  agonies." 

Formerly,  it  belonged  to  Satan,  and  was  giiided  and  ruled  by  him  ; 
but  now  it  is  Christ's,  and  now  it  loves  its  master,  and  does  his  work. 
Oh  !  how  the  master  rejoices  when  the  first  tear  of  sincere  repentance 
falls  from  their  eyes !  "  There  is  joy  in  the  presence  of  the  angels  of 
God,"  (that  is,  Christ  rejoicing,  while  the  angels  surround  him,)  "  over 
one  sinner,  that  repenteth."  Every  soul  won,  then,  is  an  addition  to 
Christ's  friends,  and  a  loss,  of  course,  to  the  kingdom  of  Satan.  Who 
that  loves  Christ,  would  not  aim  at  this  ? 

Again ;  a  soul  won,  is  won  for  the  church.  The  church  is  a  body 
of  believers,  who  meet  to  worship  their  Lord,  to  imitate  his  conduct 
and  example,  and  to  uphold  his  kingdom  in  the  world.  A  soul,  for- 
merly full  of  cursing,  or  bitterness,  or  indifference,  or  irreligion,  now 
full  of  praise  to  his  divine  master  ;  a  spirit,  previously  "  earthly,  sen- 
sual, devilish,"  now  "  set  on  things  which  are  above  "  —  his  habits 
sinful,  now  righteous  —  once  "  darkness,"  now  "  light  in  the  Lord  " 

—  once  far  from  God,  now  "brought  nigh,  by  the  blood  of  Christ" 

—  once,  a  "  stranger  and  a  foreigner,"  now  a  "  fellow-citizen  with  the 
saints,  and  of  the  household  of  God  "  —  now,  perhaps,  teaches  in  the 
same  school  with  you.  Now  he  walks  with  God,  and  the  church  has 
gained  a  friend,  when  the  soul  is  won.     Oh !  glorious  object ! 

A  soul  won,  is  won  for  the  world.  Why,  when  a  child  is  converted, 
it  is  like  taking  a  handful  of  salt,  and  casting  it  into  the  world,  to  pre- 


326  THE    ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

serve  it  from  putrefaction  ;  it  is  like  setting  up  a  new  lightliouae,  on  a 
dangerous  shore,  to  warn  mariners  to  keep  off;  it  is  like  "  a  citj  set 
upon  a  hill,  which  cannot  be  hid,"  that  others  may  gaze  upon  it  ;  it  is 
like  dew,  falling  from  heaven,  in  the  midst  of  many  people,  to  bless 
them,  and  make  them  happy  ;  it  is  a  peace-maker,  cast  among  the 
wranglers  and  contentionists  of  the  world  ;  it  is  a  guide,  for  wanderers 
to  the  celestial  city  ;  it  is  a  watchman,  to  warn  men  away  from  the 
danger,  which  is  hurrying  them  to  perdition,  and  to  give  them  notice 
of  the  fires  of  wrath  to  come,  which  are  to  devour  the  Lord's  adver- 
saries ;  it  is  a  winner  of  souls  to  God.  You  yourselves  have  won  him, 
and  out  he  goes  into  the  world,  to  win  others. 

Again :  a  soul  won,  is  won  for  yourself.  Is  not  this  a  rich  reward 
for  the  nights  you  have  sat  up,  for  the  candles  you  have  burnt,  for  the 
sleep  you  have  lost,  for  the  recreation  you  have  given  up,  to  study 
God's  book,  and  to  prepare  yourself  in  order  that  you  might  infuse 
good  principles  into  that  mind  ?  Will  it  not  be  a  blessed  reward,  when 
they  are  gathered  to  Christ  ?  "  Ye  are  our  glory  and  our  joy,"  says 
the  apostle  ;  and  he  says  elsewhere  —  "  Ye  are  our  crown  of  rejoicing, 
in  the  day  of  the  Lord."  Yes,  and  Jesus  Christ  counts  those  precious 
souls,  that  honor  him,  worthy  of  better  honor  —  those  who  are  aiming 
at,  and  are  successful  in  his  blessed  work.  "  They  that  turn  many  to 
righteousness,  shall  shine  as  the  stars,  for  ever  and  ever."  When 
you,  in  robes  of  glory,' present  them  in  your  Master's  presence,  and 
say —  "  Here  am  I,  Lord,  and  the  children  whom  thou  hast  given  me," 
for  whom  I  prayed,  and  toiled,  and  labored,  and  sacrificed,  from  love 
to  thy  precious  self,  who  had  saved  my  soul ;  to  see  him  smile  upon 
you,  and  say,  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of 
these  my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me,"  —  they  will  be  the 
words  that  will  enter  into  your  very  soul,  the  joy  of  which  you  shall 
never  lose,  while  eternity  itself  lasts. 

III.  And  now  I  am  brought  to  the  third  part  of  my  discourse,  upon 
which  I  must  be  very  brief ;  the  estimate  which  God  forms  of  such 
efforts  for  souls,  "  He  that  winneth  souls  is  wise."  And  this  term 
seems  peculiarly  appropriate  to  such  efforts  as  these. 

1.  First,  observe,  that  winning  souls  corresponds  with  the  conduct 
of  God  himself.  You  are  doing  the  very  thing,  which  God  himself  is 
doing,  when  you  are  living  for  this  purpose.  God  the  Father  is  con- 
stantly engaged  in  this  work  of  winning  souls.  All  his  providences, 
all  his  ordinances,  all  prosperous  and  all  afflictive  dispensations  are 
intended  to  draw  men  to  himself.  "  No  man  can  come  unto  me,  unless 
the  Father,  which  hath  sent  me,  draw  him."     God  the  Son,  by  the 


WISDOM   or   WINNING    SOULS.  327 

preaching  of  his  gospel,  the  exhibition  of  his  work,  and  the  influence 
of  his  love,  is  ahvavs  at  the  same  work.  "  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will 
draw  all  men  unto  mc."  God  the  Spirit,  by  impressions,  by  con^dc- 
tions,  and  by  instructions,  aims  perpetually  at  the  same  work.  "  Draw 
me  ;  I  will  run  after  thee."  "  Wherefore,  as  the  Holy  Ghost  saith, 
to-day  if  ye  will  hear  his  voice,  harden  not  your  hearts." 

Here  is  infinite  wisdom  engaged  in  winning  souls,  and  having  for 
its  object,  in  all  its  plans  and  purposes,  the  winning  of  precious  souls  ; 
and  you,  beloved,  are  coadjutors  with  God,  and  co-workers  with  the 
Deity,  in  winning  souls.  Behold  how  he  strives,  and  bears  with  men, 
repeating  his  instructions  to  them,  and  giving  them  stroke  upon  stroke, 
to  endeavor  to  recover  their  hearts,  and  win  them  back  unto  himself! 
Lo !  you  go  forth  with  the  same  object.  Oh  !  you  are  wise  indeed, 
if  you  are  a  worker  with  him  in  this. 

2.  It  furnishes  these  souls  with  real  happiness  and  usefulness  ;  and 
therefore  they  must  be  wise,  that  attempt  it.  "  This  is  life  eternal, 
to  believe  on  thee,  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ,  whom  thou 
hast  sent."  Pardon,  peace,  joy,  salvation,  you  are  giving  to  those 
children  —  things  wliich  no  wealth  could  buy,  which  nothing  could 
compensate  for  the  loss  of,  and  which  they  must  have  or  perish.  By 
it  they  are  brought  into  God's  family  :  this  is  bliss.  Why,  you  could 
do  nothing  more  wise,  as  patriots,  than  to  introduce  men  into  happi- 
ness. 

Tell  me,  my  brethren,  what  happiness  your  soul  has,  when  it  once 
comes  into  this  blessed  state  I  have  mentioned ;  when  it  knows  that  its 
sins  are  forgiven,  when  it  comes  into  the  presence  of  God,  and  enjoys 
the  fellowship  of  God,  your  Sav?or.  Is  not  this  happiness  ?  And 
suppose  every  child  in  a  class,  or  in  a  Sunday  school,  throughout  the 
world,  were  converted  ;  suppose  all  the  talents  of  these  children  were 
employed  for  the  Savior,  — how  useful,  as  well  as  how  happy,  would 
the  world  be! 

Conversion  gives  a  child  sympathy,  power  of  utterance,  new  and 
well  directed  zeal,  diligence,  and  devotion  to  his  Master's  interest. 
Then  what  a  change  would  be  produced  in  our  world,  if  these  little 
missionaries,  thus  converted  by  the  faith  of  Chi'ist,  were  to  go  forth, 
and,  as  in  apostoUc  days,  "  enter  into  every  house,  teaching  and 
preaching  Jesus  Christ !  "  This  is  what  you  have  to  do.  Can  you 
manifest  greater  wisdom  ?  J'hat  must  be  wisdom  indeed,  which  would 
bring  them  into  such  a  state  of  advantage  to  themselves  and  to  others. 

3.  Again  :  it  ranks  you  with  the  wise  and  the  good  of  all  ages.  It 
is  here,  that  Satan  labors  to  win  souls,  but  not  to  win  them  to  happi- 
ness and  salvation ;  Uke  the  fowler,  he   endeavors  to  win  them,  to 


328  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

destroy  them.  As  the  king  of  Sodom  said  to  Abraham,  after  his  return 
from  the'  war,  You  take  the  goods,  and  let  me  have  the  pei-sons  ;  you 
may  have  all  the  spoil  of  the  war,  but  let  me  have  the  persons  you 
have  taken  captive  and  I  shall  be  satisfied ;  so  Satan  says.  You  may 
take  every  thing  but  their  souls.  What  they  are,  and  however  sit- 
uated in  the  world,  I  care  not ;  only  let  me  have  their  souls ;  that  is 
my  object.  You  must  be  engaged,  then,  in  opposition  to  all  his  pur- 
poses, in  winning  these  souls  from  him. 

All  good  and  wise  men  have  labored  in  the  same  way,  before  you. 
"  Enoch,  the  seventh  from  Adam,  prophesied  "  to  all  the  profligate 
sinners  of  his  days,  and  told  them  that  Christ  was  coming,  to  take 
vengeance  on  their  sins.  For  a  hundred  and  twenty  years,  Noah, 
though  he  had  not  a  single  convert,  kept  preaching  rigtiteousness  to 
the  people.  Lot  "  vexed  his  righteous  soul  every  day  with  the  filthy 
conversation  of  the  wicked."  Elijah  prayed  and  protested  against  the 
priests  of  Baal,  and  mstructed  the  people  in  the  way  to  heaven. 
Isaiah  and  the  prophets  labored,  and  gave  their  whole  lives,  to  "  turn 
many  to  righteousness."  The  seventy,  by  Christ's  commands,  went 
out,  two  and  two,  and  beheld  the  devils  subject  to  them,  and  the  power 
of  Satan  destroyed,  in  the  conversion  of  souls.  The  primitive  Chris- 
tians went  every  day  into  the  temple,  and  into  every  house,  teaching 
the  people  ;  and  they  not  only  did  this,  but  they  had  their  representa- 
tives going  every  where,  over  all  parts  of  the  earth,  telling  men  how 
to  be  saved.  Paul,  "  from  Jerusalem,  round  about,  into  Illiricum," 
did  not  fail  to  preach  the  gospel  of  Christ ;  and  when  one  good  man, 
full  of  zeal  and  love,  took  a  girdle,  and  bound  him  round,  he  said, — 
"  What !  mean  ye  to  weep  and  to  break  mine  heart  ?  for  I  am  ready 
not  to  be  bound  only,  but  also  to  die  at  Jerusalem,  for  the  name  of  the 
Lord  Jesus." 

Now  you  are  associated  with  this  company ;  God  puts  you  among 
these  dear  people,  who  are  thus  striving  to  enlist  souls  in  his  army,  to 
fight  his  battles.  Never  yet  was  there  a  good  man,  who  did  not  aim 
to  win  souls.  His  religion  is  vain,  who  would  keep  these  benefits 
wholly  to  himself ;  it  does  not  belong  to  the  rehgion  of  Christ,  and  is 
not  a  part  of  "  the  wisdom  that  cometh  from  above."  "  The  fear  of 
the  Lord,  that  is  wisdom ; "  and  therefore,  to  make  others  fear  him  as 
well,  shows  much  greater  wisdom. 

4.  Again  :  it  gains  for  you  the  present  and  future  approbation  of 
God  ;  and  therefore  is  the  manifestation  of  the  truest  wisdom.  He 
was  so  pleased  with  Enoch,  and  he  became  such  a  proficient  in  his 
school,  that  he  did  not  suffer  him  to  pass  through  death,  in  the  ordi- 
nary course,  but  transferred  him  from  the  lower  form  on  earth,  to  the 


WISDOM   OF   WINNING   SOULS.  329 

upper  form  in  heaven.  He  was  so  pleased  with  Elijah's  zeal,  that  he 
exercised  his  miraculous  agency,  and  made  ravens  feed  him,  rather 
than  devour  him.  Stephen  spake  boldly  of  him  before  the  Sanhedrim  ; 
and  before  he  died,  he  opened  heaven  to  him,  and  showed  him  Jesus 
standing  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  ready  to  receive  him.  Did  John 
go  about  saying,  "  Little  children,  keep  yourselves  from  idols  "  — 
"  Little  children,  love  one  another ; "  and  incorporating  in  these  the 
spirit  of  love  ?  John  shall  be  taken  to  an  island,  all  the  purposes  of 
Jehovah  shall  be  opened  to  his  vision,  and  he  shall  then  see  what  God 
is  soon  to  do  upon  the  earth.  Does  Paul  serve  him  ?  He  shall  be 
"  caught  up  to  the  third  heavens,"  and  hear  words  which  it  was  not 
lawful  for  him  to  repeat. 

Do  not  expect  miracles  to  be  performed  in  your  case,  or  displayed 
in  your  behalf;  but  believe  it,  teachers,  that  if  you  aim  to  win  precious 
souls  to  God,  he  will  manifest  himself  to  you,  as  he  does  not,  ordinarily, 
to  the  world.  "  To  him  that  ordereth  his  conversation  aright,  will  I 
shew  the  salvation  of  God." 

Oh  !  the  comforts  of  his  love  :  are  they  not  better  than  life  ?  Oh ! 
to  have  the  seal  of  his  Spirit  in  my  heart,  that  I  am  his !  Oh  !  to  see 
that  heaven  is  my  own,  and  that  when  I  die,  I  shall  be  with  him,  and 
"  shall  be  like  him  !  "  To  have  this  in  one's  spirit,  what  bliss  does  it 
not  impart !  And  must  not  that  be  true  wisdom,  which  will  bring  this 
to  me,  and  seal  it  in  my  heart  ? 

And  bj'-and-by  I  shall  stand  before  him  :  the  whole  world  is  to  be  at 
his  bar.  Who  will  he  then  single  out  ?  The  people  that  have  minis- 
tered to  others,  and  have  proved  the  truth  of  their  religion  by  their 
actions.  Lord,  say  they,  when  the  repetition  of  their  deeds  is  made, 
when  did  we  this  ?  We  have  forgotten  it ;  they  were  such  slight 
actions,  that  we  thought  but  little  of  them.  Oh  !  "  inasmuch  as  ye 
have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these,  my  little  ones,  ye  have 
done  it  unto  me."  And  then,  while  he  recognizes  the  act,  to  see  those 
eyes  beaming  beauty  and  light,  darting  into  my  heart  and  m}'  counte- 
nance, and  the  voice,  in  the  tenderest  and  sweetest  tones  that  ear  ever 
heard,  saying  to  me  —  "  Come,  thou  blessed  child  of  my  Father,  enter 
into  the  inheritance  prepared  for  thee  :  " 

"  Come  in,  thou  blessed ;  sit  by  me ; 
Witli  mine  own  blood  I  've  ransom'd  thee, 
Come,  taste  my  perfect  favor." 

Oh  !  to  hear  that  voice  !  Will  it  not  be  enough.  Christian,  will  it  not 
be  enough,  teacher,  for  you  ?  God  grant  you  may  hear  it :  that  you 
may  live  to  prosecute  your  work  effectually  ;  and  then  you  shall  see, 


330  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

that  your  teaching,  both  to  others  and  to  yourselves,  has  not  been  in 
vain. 

But  now  what  shall  I  say  ?  I  have  already,  I  fear,  exhausted  your 
strength  and  patience  ;  but  I  cannot  part  with  you,  without  one  word ; 
it  is  to  impress  a  thought,  which  I  have  already  thrown  out,  the  more 
upon  your  attention :  prepare  much  for  winning  souls.  Souls  are  not 
won  by  ignorance  ;  ignorant  teachers  are  not  the  individuals  that  God 
ordinarily  employs  to  win  souls.  Some  have  winning  manners,  but 
shallow  and  uninstructed  minds.  Now  if  any  of  you  have  a  class 
which  you  have  brought  on  as  far  as  you  can,  do  not  look  black  if  the 
superintendent  should  one  day  come  and  say.  It  is  time  some  of  these 
dear  children  were  removed  from  your  class  to  another !  That  teacher 
has  better  qualifications,  he  knows,  than  3'ourself,  for  these  great 
objects.  I  sympathize  with  you  ;  I  know  the  pang  of  parting  with  a 
child,  after  you  have  had  that  child  sometime  in  your  class  ;  and  yet 
your  feelings  are  not  to  be  your  guide,  but  that  child's  salvation  is  to 
be  your  object ;  and  whether  John,  or  Thomas,  or  Peter,  or  Andrew 
is  the  best  teacher  to  guide  that  child  to  heaven,  let  him  have  that 
teacher  so  that  he  is  best  instructed  in  his  way  thither. 

My  beloved,  I  fear  that  many  of  us  want  a  great  deal  of  instruction, 
yet,  in  the  science  of  humility.  Do  you  repeat  that  lesson  once  a-week 
to  yourselves  —  "  Let  each  esteem  others  better  than  himself  ?  "  That 
is  the  first  round  of  the  ladder  ;  but  a  great  many  persons  climb  to  the 
upper  rounds,  and  fall  down.  Begin  with  that  round  and  you  are 
safe,  and  shall  ascend,  gently  and  surely,  to  the  highest  and  most  dis- 
tinguished posts  that  teachers  can  enjoy. 

Let  me  beseech  all  of  you,  then,  as  far  as  lies  in  your  power,  to 
labor  to  prepare  the  mind  for  instruction.  Read  the  Bible  with  notes, 
and  take  all  the  means  which  are  furnished  you,  for  the  purpose  of 
aiding  your  instruction.  Study  well  those  cheap,  well-prepared,  and 
judicious  notes,  published  by  the  Sunday  School  Union  ;  and  as  most 
children  learn  the  same  lessons,  take  care  that  those  notes,  and  par- 
ticularly the  practical  reflections,  with  whatever  other  reflections  occur 
to  your  OAvn  mind,  after  you  have  been  with  God  in  prayer,  are  thor- 
oughly impressed  upon  your  mind,  so  that  you  shall  have  them  when 
you  go  to  the  class,  ready  for  delivering ;  and  you  will  find  the  ben- 
efit of  it. 

Then  there  is  one  thing,  in  order  to  this ;  and  with  that  I  close. 
Prayer  must  be  always  associated  with  your  labor ;  prayer  to  get  God's 
Spirit,  —  the  spirit  of  love,  tenderness,  and  sympathy,  and  forbear- 
ance, and  zeal.  If  you  are  much  with  God,  you  cannot  go  among 
the  children  without  communicating  something  of  these  feelings  :  and 


SCRIPTURAL   TRUTH.  331 

they  soon  perceive  it.  You  need  not  tell  a  cliild  that  you  have  been 
^N-ith  God  in  prayer  ;  persons  belonging  to  a  Christian  Church  have  no 
reason  to  talk  much  about  having  communion  ^\ith  God.  If  they 
have,  it  is  like  ointment  in  their  right  hand  ;  it  is  sure  to  betray  itself. 
There  is  something  in  their  manner  and  temper,  that  people  tell,  just 
as  if  a  dehcious  ointment  was  rubbed  on  a  man's  hand,  and  he  goes 
into  a  house,  and  endeavors  to  hide  it ;  the  smell  of  it  spreads  every- 
where. And  if  this  be  the  case  ^Yith  you,  my  Christian  friends,  you 
will  show  it  to  the  children  in  your  spirit  and  conduct,  which  they  soon 
understand. 

Be  assured,  teachers,  from  the  Book  of  God,  that  Divine  influence 
in  teaching  is  every  thing  to  you.  You  may  use  all  means,  and  commu- 
nicate all  knowledge,  but  it  will  be  in  vain  without  this.  Therefore, 
hear  this  last  sentence  —  "  It  is  not  by  might,  nor  by  power,  but  by 
my  Spirit,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts."  Get  that,  and  you  shall  "  win 
souls  "  to  your  blessed  Master. 


SERMON    XXYII. 

THE   TRANSMISSION   OF   SCRIPTURAL   TRUTH   TO   POSTERITY. 
BY  REV.  J.  BELCHER,  D.  D. 

"  I  will  open  my  mouth  in  a  parable ;  I  vnU.  utter  dark  sayings  of  old  ;  which  we  hara 
heard,  and  known,  and  our  fathers  have  told  us.  We  will  not  hide  them  from  tlioir  children, 
showing  to  the  generation  to  come  the  praises  of  the  Lord,  and  his  strength,  and  his  won- 
derful works  that  he  hath  done.  For  he  established  a  testimony  in  Jacob,  and  appointed  a 
law  in  Israel,  which  he  commanded  our  fiithers,  that  they  should  make  them  known  to  their 
children ;  that  the  generation  to  come  might  know  them,  even  the  children  which  should 
be  born ;  who  should  arise  and  declare  them  to  their  children :  that  they  might  set  their 
hope  in  God,  and  not  forget  the  works  of  God,  but  keep  his  commandments."  —  Psalms 
Ixxviii.  2  —  7. 

"  WiiATSOE^rER  was  Written  aforetime,  was  written  for  our  instruc- 
tion, that  we,  through  patience  and  comfort  of  the  Scriptures,  might 
have  hope."  The  perpetuity  of  divine  truth,  and  the  enlargement  of 
its  boundaries  in  our  world,  has  ever  been  an  iuTportant  object  in  the 
arrangements  of  divine  providence.  "While  the  modes  of  its  commu- 
nication to  the  world,  its  constantly  increasing  splendor,  and  the 
happiness  it  casts  around  it  wherever  its  light  shines,  commands  our 
admiration,  we  cannot  be  less  impressed  with  the  fact,  that  notwith- 


332  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

standing  its  opposition  to  our  depraved  nature,  and  in  spite  of  the 
inveterate  malice  borne  to  it,  it  yet  maintains  its  standing  and  extends 
its  triumphs  ;  proving  that  the  God  of  truth  will  ever  assert  his  suprem- 
acy, disappoint  his  enemies,  and  make  man  happy. 

In  contemplating  the  history  of  Scriptural  truth,  it  is  truly  inter- 
esting to  observe  how  its  great  author  can  raise  up  instruments  to  make 
it  known.  There  have  been  periods  when  comparatively  little  attention 
has  been  paid  to  it,  and  when  ignorance  and  idolatry  have  threatened 
to  prevail ;  but  at  such  times,  he  who  has  the  residue  of  the  Spirit  has 
caused  holy  influence  to  descend  on  some  of  his  servants,  who  have 
thus  been  strong  to  do  exploits.  Such  appears  to  have  been  the  case 
in  connection  with  the  psalm  before  us.  We  cannot  be  quite  certain 
either  as  to  its  author  or  occasion ;  but  the  opinion  of  Calmet  and 
others  appears  quite  probable,  that  it  was  composed  by  Asaph,  many 
years  after  the  death  of  David,  in  the  reign  of  Asa,  the  thu-d  king  of 
Judah.  For  twenty  years,  during  the  government  of  Jeroboam  and 
Abijah,  had  these  tribes  departed  from  God ;  but  when  Asa,  a  pious 
young  man,  came  to  the  throne,  he  adopted  means  for  the  revival  of 
true  religion,  while  Asaph  reminds  his  brethren  of  the  blessings  of 
divine  Revelation  made  known  to  their  fathers  and  handed  down  to 
them,  and  enforces  the  importance  of  their  being  impressed  on  the 
minds  of  the  rising  generation.  Similar  instances  of  the  kindness  of 
God  in  reviving  attention  to  his  cause  might  be  referred  to  in  the 
history  both  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments ;  nor  scarcely  less  inter- 
esting are  the  circumstances  of  this  kind  which  have  passed  before  our 
review  within  the  last  sixty  years. 

But  the  passage  we  have  read  as  a  text,  has  an  especial  reference  to 
human  duty  in  connection  with  this  great  subject.  We  are  fully  aware 
of  its  comprehensive  character,  and  of  the  vast  variety  of  trains  of 
thought  which  it  would  present  to  every  contemplative  mind  ;  but  the 
one  subject,  to  the  brief  illustration  of  which  our  present  attention  will 
be  directed,  is  that  of  the  transmission  of  Scriptural  truth  to  posterity. 
And,  if  we  have  not  mistaken  the  whole  character  of  our  text,  it  pre- 
sents to  us  four  grand  arguments  why  we  should  zealously  devote 
ourselves  to  this  duty. 

The  first  is  derived  from  the  peculiar  character  of  scriptural  truth. 

The  second  arises  out  of  the  manner  in  which  we  have  been  put  into 
its  possession. 

The  third  is  drawn  from  the  divine  arrangements  as  to  its  communi- 
cation from  one  class  of  persons  to  another.     And, 

The  fourth  will  be  seen  in  connection  with  the  great  results  it  is 
intended  to  produce. 


SCRIPTURAL  TRUTH.  833 

It  will  be  apparent  to  all  of  you,  that  the  utmost  which  can  be 
attempted  bj  the  preacher,  on  this  occasion,  will  be  a  very  imperfect 
glance  at  each  particular  of  this  scheme. 

I.  The  first  argument  in  favor  of  zealous  exertion  for  the  trans- 
mission of  scriptural  truth  to  posterity,  is  derived  from  the  peculiar- 
ity OF  ITS  CHARACTER. 

The  knowledge  of  temporal  affairs,  of  human  sciences,  and  of  the 
various  things  which  contribute  to  present  happiness,  is  vastly  important, 
and  it  would  be  cruelty  to  withhold  it  from  the  young ;  but  here  we 
have  before  us  a  volume  of  truth,  a  series  of  discoveries,  and  precepts 
of  duty  w^hich  angels  could  not  have  given  us,  but  which  are  put  into 
our  hands  while  they  are  even  yet  withheld  from  the  vast  mass  of 
mankind.  When  the  inspired  psalmist  speaks  of  the  Holy  Volume  as 
a  testimony  which  Jehovah  had  established,  a  law  which  he  had 
appointed,  and  as  designed  to  show  forth  his  praises,  and  to  exhibit  his 
power,  and  his  wonderful  works,  we  understand  the  expressions  as 
denoting  the  whole  of  the  Sacred  Records,  in  all  their  fulness,  and 
puiity,  and  beauty.  And  who  can  examine  this  book  without  grateful 
admiration  and  astonishment  ? 

Look  at  its  revelation  of  God.  The  eternity  of  his  existence,  the 
extent  of  his  power,  the  penetrating  character  of  his  omniscience,  the 
grandeur  of  his  holiness,  and  the  immutability  of  his  perfections,  over- 
whelm us  ;  his  regard  to  man,  the  manifestations  of  his  love,  and  the 
continuance  of  his  favor,  notwithstanding  our  sins,  fill  us  with  grateful 
delight.  The  history  of  what  he  has  done,  the  statement  of  what  he 
is  doing,  and  the  announcement  of  what  he  designs,  all  inspire  us  with 
thankful  emotions  for  the  possession  of  such  a  Book.  We  rejoice  that 
we  have  a  testimony  which  is  infallibly  correct,  as  we  receive  it  from 
truth  itself;  and  though  the  testimony  bears  most  affecting  witness 
against  our  wicked  feelings  and  base  conduct  against  God,  yet  the  very 
pain  it  excites  is  salutary,  and  contributes  to  the  happiness  to  which 
the  Book  of  God  tends. 

Look  at  the  insti'uction  it  affords,  as  to  our  duty.  While  it  presents 
God  as  our  Creator  and  Benefactor,  it  demands  that  we  love  him ; 
while  it  describes  the  whole  human  race  as  children  of  one  common 
fiimily,  it  calls  for  mutual  and  universal  love  ;  it  identifies  our  duty  and 
our  happiness  ;  and  deriving  its  sanctions  from  eternity,  it  calls  us  to 
the  discharge  of  present  duty.  It  inculcates  our  pursuit  of  happiness 
for  ourselves,  our  bestowment  of  our  regards  on  our  fellow-men,  and 
the  consecration  of  all  our  powers  to  God.  Oh,  how  glorious  the  word 
of  God  considered  as  a  law  ! 


334  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

But  above  all,  consider  Revelation  as  a  history  of  CrocVs  conduct. 
And  here  the  details  of  creation  are  lovely,  the  records  of  his  provi- 
dence are  profoundly  instructive;  but  his  acts  of  redemption  are 
surrounded  with  a  splendor  which  angels  themselves  cannot  fully 
contemplate.  Here  we  read  of  the  infinity  of  his  love,  which  eternally 
decreed  the  gift  of  his  Son  to  atone  for  our  sins,  and  to  open  the  gates 
of  heaven  which  we  had  closed  against  ourselves.  We  trace  the  oper- 
ations of  his  love  in  all  the  transactions  of  time,  and  especially  in 
connection  with  whatever  related  to  the  church.  We  exult  in  its  exhi- 
bitions of  the  incarnation,  the  life,  the  sermons,  the  miracles,  the 
examples,  the  sufferings,  and  the  death  of  the  Son  of  God  ;  and  we 
admire  the  book  which  presents  all  these  things  to  our  delighted  minds, 
while  it  unfolds  the  present  engagements  of  the  Redeemer,  and  his 
ultimate  design  of  imparting  his  own  joy  to  all  his  followers.  We 
gratefully  exult  in  the  recollection  that  the  Book  of  God  invites  every 
sinner  to  the  reception  of  mercy,  and  presents  Jehovah  as  waiting  to 
be  gracious  to  the  penitent. 

And  now,  my  brethren,  let  the  man  who  has  personally  realized 
these  things,  and  who  exults  in  the  faith  of  the  gospel ;  who  has  felt  its 
power  in  drawing  him  to  Christ,  its  consoling  influence  in  the  hour  of 
sorrow,  and  its  sanctifying  tendency  in  all  its  operations  —  let  such  a 
man  ask  himself  if  this  volume  of  truth  ought  to  be  concealed  ?  or 
rather,  whether  it  should  not  be  made  known  as  extensively  as  possible  ? 
Who  among  us  does  not  feel  it  a  subject  for  the  warmest  congratulation, 
that  from  a  child  he  has  known  the  Holy  Scriptures,  which  are  able  to 
make  us  wise  unto  salvation,  through  faith  in  Christ  Jesus  ?  And  what 
heart,  under  the  influence  of  the  doctrines  which  are  here  taught,  and 
the  spirit  which  is  here  cherished,  does  not  esteem  it  at  once  his  duty 
and  his  privilege  to  make  known  these  records  to  the  thousands  of  the 
young  around  him  ?  We  should  pity  the  man  who  possessed  the  Bible, 
and  who  felt  no  wish  for  its  diffusion  ;  and  should  be  compelled  to  assert, 
that  however  well  he  might  be  acquainted  with  its  theory,  he  never  felt 
any  thing  of  its  temper. 

II.  We  draw  a  second  argument  for  the  transmission  of  Scriptural 
truth  to  the  young  from  the  manner  in  which  we  have  been  put 

INTO  ITS  POSSESSION. 

We  have  neither  discovered  the  truth  for  ourselves,  nor  have  we  by 
our  own  powers  drawn  it  from  heaven  :  "  We  have  heard  it,"  "  our 
fathers  have  told  us." 

The  volume  of  Divine  Revelation  is  not  new.  Essential  as  heavenly 
truth  ever  has  been  to  man  from  the  period  of  the  fall,  it  was  not  long 


SCRIPTURAL   TRUTH.  335 

before  the  "  day  spring  from  on  high  "  visited  our  world.  The  first 
portion  of  Revelation  was  uttered  by  the  lips  of  Deity  directly  to  man ; 
after  which,  in  various  modes  and  at  different  periods,  this  knowledge 
became  deeper  and  more  extensive.  In  the  first  instance  it  was  commu- 
nicated from  one  to  another  only  by  the  human  voice.  The  memory 
of  man  was  the  only  depository  of  the  word  of  God.  After  a  while  it 
was  committed  to  writing,  and  holy  men  of  God  transmitted  from  their 
own  generation  downwards  to  others  the  information  which  Jehovah 
had  given.  It  must  have  been  interesting  to  hear  the  patriarchs 
telling  their  children,  and  their  children's  children,  the  wonderful 
things  to  which  they  had  been  privileged  to  listen  from  the  lips  of  their 
fathers.  We  could  almost  wish  to  have  heard  the  statements  of  Noah, 
Abraham,  and  of  Jacob,  when  surrounded  by  their  respective  families. 
Well,  wc  may  listen,  and  not  only  read  their  accounts,  but  the  disclo- 
sure of  facts,  and  of  the  designs  of  God  to  which  they  would  have 
gladly  attended,  but  died  without  knowing. 

From  the  fathers  of  antiquity  we  have  received  the  lively  oracles  of 
truth.  Here  is  the  delineation  of  human  character  and  misery,  and 
of  the  divine  method  of  making  man  happy.  Our  fathers  received  the 
truth  from  heaven,  and  tested  its  character  and  its  power;  they  felt  its 
happy  results  in  the  regeneration  and  sanctification  of  their  souls  ;  they 
exulted  in  its  consolations  in  the  hour  of  trial ;  they  made  arrangements 
for  its  descent  from  age  to  age  till  time  should  cease  to  roll  round  ; 
they  adhered  to  the  truth  in  defiance  of  persecution  ;  they  extended 
it,  though  human  laws  combined  against  them  ;  and  then  multitudes  of 
them  —  to  prove  their  faith  and  to  show  its  influence  —  cheerfully  met 
death  in  its  defence.  Thus  did  they  show  their  regard  to  the  author- 
ity of  heaven,  their  love  to  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  and  their  pure 
and  exalted  concern  for  the  souls  of  their  fellow-men. 

Wc  grant,  that  now  we  have  a  more  sure  word  than  that  of  tradition  ; 
wc  thank  God  that  we  have  a  higher  standard  of  appeal  than  the  frail 
memory  of  man,  which  might  be  injuriously  acted  upon  by  his  depravity ; 
but  we  will  be  grateful  too,  that  holy  men  orally  instructed  us  in  the 
way  of  salvation.  We  should  deeply  pity  the  youth  who  would  turn  a 
deaf  car  to  the  warm  and  faithful  instructions  of  a  beloved  parent  or 
friend  ;  who  would  close  his  eyes  against  the  fife  which  illustrates  and 
adorns  Christianity  ;  and  who  would  barricade  his  heart  against  the 
reception  of  a  spirit  of  light,  of  purity,  and  of  joy,  which  the  man  of 
God  ever  desires  instrumentally  to  communicate. 

There  is,  my  brethren,  a  feeling  of  deep  interest  produced  by  the 
recollections  of  a  pious  education.  After  the  lapse  of  many  years,  the 
mind  seems  to  place  itself  in  the  shades  of  the  scenes  it  once  witnessed. 


3S6  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

We  recall  the  features,  the  words,  the  tones,  the  tears,  and  the  actions 
of  our  teachers.  We  connect  their  instructions  with  the  spirit  they 
manifested  ;  and  the  truths  they  taught  are  exemplified  in  the  character 
they  sustained.  We  retrace  their  lives,  and  we  follow  them  again  to 
their  closing  scenes,  and  feel  that  our  hearts  are  made  better  ;  that  we 
are  more  detached  than  we  were  from  earth,  and  that  we  have  an 
increasingly  strong  desire  to  "  be  followers  of  them  who,  through  faith 
and  patience,  are  inheriting  the  promises." 

.  Here,  then,  we  take  our  stand,  and  say,  that  as  we  have  received 
the  knowledge  of  God  and  the  way  of  happiness  from  our  fathers,  who 
showed  us  by  their  lips  and  their  lives  the  way  of  happiness,  we  are 
bound,  by  every  consideration  of  gratitude,  to  give  to  others  what  has 
been  so  freely  given  to  us.  We  have  never  been  constituted  sole 
proprietors  of  the  truth  of  God,  but  have  been  made  trustees  of  it  also 
for  others.  '  Who  among  us  could  be  so  ungrateful,  so  unjust,  so  cruel, 
as  to  keep  back  that  which  has  been  committed  to  him  for  his  children  ; 
the  withholding  of  which  does  not  enrich  him,  but  makes  them  poor 
indeed  ?  By  the  good  providence  of  God  our  ancestors  have  enabled 
us  to  say,  that  "  the  lines  have  fallen  to  us  in  pleasant  places,  and  that 
we  have  a  goodly  heritage  ;  "  and  by  that  same  providence  shall  our 
children  rise  up  to  call  us  blessed  ;  for  we  "  will  endeavor  that  after 
our  decease  they  shall  have  these  things  in  remembrance,"  and  be 
enabled  to  hand  them  down  with  still  increased  efficiency  to  their 
posterity.  * 

III.  We  hasten,  brethren,  to  present  a  third  argument  for  the 
discharge  of  this  duty,  arising  out  of  the  divine  arrangements  as 

TO   ITS   TRANSMISSION. 

"  He  commanded  our  fathers,  that  they  should  make  them  known  to 
their  children."  It  is  a  doctrine  well  understood  by  every  true  Chris- 
tian, that  we  are  not  to  be  guided  in  our  conduct  by  our  own  sinful 
inclinations.  The  very  essence  of  true  religion  is  the  submission  of 
the  heart  and  life  to  the  service  of  God  ;  every  thing  will  be  found  to 
establish  the  fact  asserted  in  our  text,  that  the  Divine  being  requires 
us  to  instruct  the  young  in  the  things  which  belong  to  their  peace.  If 
the  parent  examines  his  own  heart,  he  will  find  that  all  the  tenderest 
feelings  of  his  nature  combine  to  interest  him  in  the  happiness  of  his 
children,  and  he  cannot  withhold  from  them  the  information  which 
would  add  to  their  enjoyment ;  he  could  not  see  them  exposed  to 
danger  without  pointing  out  the  way  of  escape  ;  he  could  not  behold 
the  way  of  happiness  opening  to  their  view  and  not  point  out  the  bhss- 
ful  road.     Humanity,  too,  enlarges  this   feeling  and  compels  it  to 


SCRIPTURAL  TRUTH.  337 

comprehend  the  whole  human  race.  "We  sec  our  fello^Y-men  exposed 
to  the  same  common  calamities,  we  contemplate  them  all  as  capable  of 
vast  enjoyments,  and  we  feel  ashamed  of  ourselves  when  we  do  not 
intently  pursue  the  objects  which  will  add  to  their  felicity.  And  when, 
as  Christians,  we  open  the  volume  of  Divine  Revelation,  we  see  how, 
from  the  days  of  Abraham  downwards,  very  specific  directions  have 
been  given  from  heaven  as  to  the  obligations  of  good  men  to  give 
instructions  to  the  ignorant ;  and  we  behold  the  pleasing  combinations 
of  the  pious  in  every  age  to  accomplish  the  important  object. 

But  our  text,  and  the  volume  of  inspiration  generally,  shows  the 
duty  of  Christians  to  have  an  especial  reference  to  the  young.  Fathers 
are  commanded  to  make  known  the  commands  and  the  character  of 
God  to  their  children.  Various  powerful  reasons  might  be  assigned  for 
this  infinitely  wise  arrangement.  The  young  come  into  our  world  with 
an  awfully  strong  bias  to  evil,  and  it  is  unspeakably  important  to  check 
the  workings  of  their  depravity  by  presenting  the  most  powerful  con- 
siderations which  tend  to  the  accomplishment  of  such  an  end.  They 
are  exposed  to  the  most  awful  dangers  arising  from  this  depraved  dispo- 
sition, from  the  manifold  temptations  of  Satan,  from  the  evils  they 
witness  in  the  corrupted  state  of  society,  and  from  ten  thousand  allure- 
ments to  vice  to  which  they  are  always  exposed.  Oh,  how  needful, 
then,  that  we  should  draw  light  from  heaven  to  guide  their  feet  in  the 
way  of  peace,  that  they  may  at  once  be  delivered  from  evil,  and  led 
into  all  that  is  good. 

There  are  yet  other  considerations  which  should  have  their  full 
influence  in  this  weighty  affair.  Those  to  whom  we  are  called  on  to 
give  instruction  are  the  hope  of  the  future,  they  are  those  who  must 
succeed  us  in  the  discharge  of  the  duties  of  life,  they  will  give  a  charac- 
ter to  the  next  age  ;  nay,  their  conduct  will  have  its  influence  on  gen- 
erations yet  to  come.  Who  that  feels  as  he  ought  to  do  is  not  desirous 
of  being  fairly  represented  to  posterity  ?  and  who,  that  rolls  his  eye 
over  the  scroll  of  prophecy,  can  forbear  to  witness  the  important 
events  which  are  soon  to  be  accomplished,  or  cease  to  feel  an  intense 
interest  in  the  training  of  those  who  will  take  a  part  in  the  still  severer 
struggle  to  which  we  look  forward,  between  sin  and  holiness  ? 

Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  here,  that,  as  immortal  creatures,  the  char- 
acter of  man  is  usually  formed  in  youth  for  eternity.  Comparatively 
few  cases  occur  in  which  the  great  process  of  regeneration  is  known 
in  the  heart  beyond  the  middle  stage  of  life.  If  these  children  were 
permitted  to  grow  up  in  the  ways  of  ignorance  and  sin,  and  to  pass  to 
mature  life  in  that  state,  the  strong  probability  is,  that  they  would 
continue  to  live  neither  receiving  nor  communicating  happiness  for 
22 


838  THE    ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

eternity.  The  mind  derives  its  character  from  the  transactions  into 
■which  it  comes  in  contact  m  the  first  years  of  its  existence.  Oh, 
Christians,  what  a  motive  to  efibrt !  Oh,  teachers,  what  a  motive  to 
diligence ! 

IV.  These  remarks  seem  to  connect  themselves  with  the  fourth 
argument  we  deduce  from  our  text  in  favor  of  the  transmission  of 
Scriptural  truth  to  posterity,  it  is  derived  from  the  great  results 

WHICH  IT  IS   intended   TO   ACCOMPLISH. 

God  had  a  most  important  object  to  effect  by  the  donation  of  his 
Word  to  the  world,  and  he  intends  that  by  the  communication  of  his 
truth  to  the  young,  "  they  might  set  their  hope  in  God,  and  not  forget 
the  works  of  God,  but  keep  his  commandments."  It  is  truly  delight- 
ful to  contemplate  the  possibility,  nay,  the  certainty,  of  man  being 
again  brought  into  contact  with  the  Most  High.  Melancholy,  indeed, 
is  the  fact,  that  he  has  departed  from  the  fountain  of  felicity  and  fixed 
his  hopes  of  enjoyment  on  created  objects,  that  he  should  have  so  far 
forgotten  the  character  and  just  claims  of  Jehovah  as  to  engage  in 
actual  rebellion  against  his  government,  and  to  have  formed  an  agree- 
ment with  fallen  angels  to  hurl  Deity  from  his  throne.  But  this  state 
of  things  is  not  always  to  continue.  He  who  sent  his  Son  into  our 
world  to  die  for  man,  graciously  engaged  that  he  should  see  the  full 
desires  of  his  soul  in  the  renovation  of  the  moral  world.  We  are 
even  now  contemplating  the  new  creation  of  earth  ;  the  command  is 
gone  forth  to  that  end,  and  Jehovah  calls  upon  us  to  behold  him  making 
his  world  anew.  The  sons  of  men  must  be  brought  to  fix  their  best 
affections  on  the  great  source  of  all  excellence,  to  study  every  part  of 
his  will,  and  to  give  every  energy  they  possess  to  the  advancement  of 
his  glory.  This  is,  indeed,  a  scene  on  which  the  attention  of  angels 
may  be  well  fixed,  and  which  is  every  way  adapted  to  call  forth  their 
warmest  admiration.  Over  such  facts  they  may  again  sing,  and  these 
sons  of  God  may  shout  aloud  for  joy. 

It  is  eminently  adapted,  my  brethren,  to  increase  and  to  purify  our 
zeal,  to  remember  that  we  are  not  now  rejoicing  in  the  mere  paintings 
of  imagination ;  but  that  we  are  exulting  in  what  shall  soon  prove 
sober  and  blessed  reality !  He  who  created  the  world  hath  confirmed 
the  fact,  staking  his  very  existence  upon  it,  that  the  whole  earth  shall 
be  filled  with  his  glory. 

Oh,  how  blissful  the  reflection,  that  a  period  shall  arrive  in  the  his- 
tory of  our  race  when  the  evil  dispositions  which  are  now  the  founda- 
tion of  misery,  shall  be  destroyed,  when  man  shall  cease  to  be  filled 
with  envy,  and  wrath,  and  all  uncharitableness,  and  when  he  shall  be 


SPIRITUAL   TRUTH.  339 

filled  with  love  to  God  and  man  —  at  once  happy  in  himself,  and  doing 
whatever  may  lie  in  his  power  to  make  others  happy. 

Equally  interesting  is  it  to  remark,  that  this  mighty  change  is  not 
to  be  brought  about  by  miraculous  agency,  but  simply  by  means  of 
man  communicating  to  man  the  knowledge  of  God.  Those  who  possess 
this  knowledge  will  give  it  to  others  till  all  the  world  shall  rejoice  in  its 
light.  Every  individual  who  receives  the  knowledge  of  God,  in  the 
love  of  it,  becomes  a  moral  sun,  diflFusing  light  and  warmth  around 
him,  the  glorious  effects  of  which  shall  be  felt  through  all  the  changes 
of  time,  and  in  eternity  itself.  When  we  contemplate,  for  mstance, 
the  thousands  of  the  young  who,  in  connection  with  this  congregation, 
have  been  taught  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  ;  and  especially 
when  we  remember  the  many  scores  who  have  been  morally  renewed 
by  it,  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  calculate  the  good  which  it  has  effected, 
or  fully  to  conceive  of  the  infinite  ramifications  of  this  river  of  life, 
scattering  its  blessings  through  the  world,  down  to  the  very  end  of 
time  —  and  then  anew  displaying  themselves  in  the  eternal  world. 

But  we  must  hasten  to  a  close.  The  very  soul  of  preaching  is 
practical  application.  We  have  seen  something  in  the  history  of  the 
people  of  God  which  tends  to  confirm  all  that  we  have  said ;  and  have 
been  fully  convinced,  that  the  church  of  Christ  has  been  most  prosper- 
ous when  it  has  been  most  attentive  to  the  spiritual  interests  of  the 
rising  generation.  But  we  are  desirous  of  leading  you  very  fully  to 
act  on  our  text. 

Will  you  permit  the  preacher  to  indulge  for  a  moment  or  two  in  the 
narration  of  a  plain,  unvarnished  tale  ?  Some  three  or  four  and  thirty 
years  ago,  a  little  company  of  the  followers  of  the  Redeemer,  in  con- 
nection with  this  Christian  church  —  some  of  whom  continue  to  this 
day,  but  many  are  fallen  asleep  —  resolved  on  directing  the  attention 
of  the  children  of  the  poor  more  fully  to  Christ.  Their  number  was 
not  large,  their  attainments,  generally  speaking,  were  not  great,  and, 
in  the  esteem  of  the  world,  their  prospect  was  not  cheering  ;  but  God 
has  always  commenced  his  great  proceedings  with  small  means  ;  among 
some  of  the  earliest  of  its  scholars  was  a  little  orphan  boy, 

"  The  son  of  parents  passed  into  the  skies," 

both  of  whom  once  communed  with  this  Christian  society.  The  Sun- 
day School  taught  him  to  read  his  Bible,  to  weep  over  sin,  and  to  en- 
tertain high  thoughts  of  the  Savior ;  while  its  best  friends  provided 
for  each  of  his  temporal  wants.  As  time  rolled  along  it  brought  with 
it  new  mercies,  tiU  that  boy,  it  was  humbly  hoped,  became  a  follower 
of  Jesus,  was  numbered  with  his  people,  entered  the  Christian  min- 


340  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

istry,  and  labored  in  the  Christian  cause  of  Christ  it  is  believed  not 
without  success.  And  now  at  the  end  of  eight-and-twenty  years,  he 
appears  among  you  this  morning  to  erect  his  stone  of  Ebenezer  in 
grateful  remembrance  of  divine  mercies,  to  weep  over  parental  and 
friendly  dust,  and  to  avow  his  increasing  attachment  to  Sabbath 
schools.  The  fathers  are  gone  ;  the  very  prophets  depart  hence  ;  but 
turning  to  these  young  persons,  we  say  to  your  pastor,  your  deacons, 
and  to  every  Christian,  "  These  same  shall  comfort  you  concerning  the 
work  and  the  toil  of  your  hands." 

Pardon,  my  brethren,  this  allusion  to  the  personal  history  of  the 
preacher  ;  it  has  been  called  forth  by  gi-ateful  recollections  of  bygone 
days.  "  If  I  forget  thee,"  0,  thou  Sunday  school,  "  let  my  right 
hand  forget  her  cunning,  let  my  tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of  my  mouth, 
if  I  prefer  not  thee  to  my  chief  joy.  For  my  brethren  and  compan- 
ions' sakes  I  will  now  say,  peace  be  within  thee.  Because  of  the 
house  of  the  Lord  my  God  I  will  seek  thy  good." 


SERMON   XXVIII. 

WHAT     IS     THE     NATURE     OF     JUSTIFYING     FAITH? 

BY  THE  HON.  AND  REV.  B.  W.  NOEL. 

"Whom  God  hath  set  forth  to  be  a  propitiation  through  faith  in  his  blood."  —  Rom.  iii.  25. 

The  previous  verses  of  this  passage  teach  us  these  important  truths ; 
that  all  of  us  are,  by  nature  and  practice,  condemned  by  the  law  of 
God,  and  consequently  that  no  obedience  to  that  law  which  condemns, 
can  justify  us  ;  but  that  there  is,  notwithstanding,  a  justification  pro- 
vided for  a  certain  class  of  persons  by  God  himself,  which  is  here 
termed  "  His  righteousness  :  "  that  this  justification  is  a  free  gift  to 
sinners  —  absolutely,  divinely  free  ;  yet,  nevertheless,  that  it  has  been 
obtained  for  them  by  the  costly  sacrifice  of  tlie  Son  of  God,  and  is  not 
granted  of  7nere  mercy,  but  is  granted  to  them  of  mercy  "  through  the 
redemption  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus."  Having  stated  these  truths,  the 
apostle  tells  us,  in  the  words  which  I  have  read,  to  what  class  of  per- 
sons that  blessing  is  restricted.  It  is  not  granted  to  all  mankmd,  but 
it  is  granted  to  those  who  believe  in  Christ ;  "  whom  God  hath  set 
forth  to  be  a  propitiation  through  faith  in  his  blood.^' 


WHAT  IS   JUSTIFYING    FAITH  ?  341 

The  original  cause,  then,  of  the  justification  of  a  sinner,  is  the  abso- 
lute mercy  of  God ;  the  meritorious  cause  of  a  sinner's  justification,  is 
the  obedience  and  the  sufferings  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  and  the 
instrumental  cause  of  a  sinner's  justification  is  faith  in  that  Redeemer. 
There  is  but  one  original  cause,  —  which  is  mercy ;  there  is  but  one 
meritorious  cause,  —  and  that  is  redemption  by  Christ;  and  there  is 
but  one  instrumental  cause,  —  and  that  is  faith  in  Christ.  "Whom 
God  hath  set  forth  to  be  a  propitiation  throngh  faith  m  his  blood.^' 

Let  us  look  to  God  the  Spirit,  who  alone  can  make  his  own  word 
profitable,  while  we  consider  what  is  the  nature  of  justifying  faith,  the 
extent  to  which  it  justifies,  and  the  manner  in  which  it  justifies.  The 
whole  statement  is  very  simple,  but  it  is  of  great  moment  to  every  sin- 
gle person  of  this  congregation.  It  is  of  the  last  consequence  to  us, 
that  we  not  only  know  what  this  faith  is,  but  have  it.  It  is  of  the 
utmost  moment  to  you  and  me,  that  we  have  tliis  faith  ;  and  it  is  my 
object,  in  the  simple  exposition  which  may  follow  these  words,  to  lead 
you,  as  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  great  God,  not  only  to  know 
what  justifying  faith  is,  but  to  have  it. 

Let  us  think,  first,  what  it  is  not :  because,  this  may  enable  us  the 
more  clearly  to  observe  what  it  is. 

The  faith,  of  which  the  apostle  speaks  in  these  words,  through  which 
Christ  becomes  a  propitiation  for  any  individual  sinner,  is  not  a  belief 
in  the  truth  of  the  fact,  that  Christ  is  come,  or  that  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  a  divinely  inspired  revelation  of  that  fact  and  its  consequences. 
Because,  faith  in  Christ  is  evidently  trust  in  Christ ;  it  is  the  meaning 
of  the  word.  No  man  can  pretend  to  have  faith  in  Christ,  and  not 
trust  Christ :  just  as  a  person  could  not  pretend  to  have  faith  in  his 
physician,  and  not  trust  his  physician.  But  a  person  may  believe  in 
the  truth  that  Christ  is  come,  and  may  believe  that  the  New  Testament 
reveals  that  fact,  its  character  and  its  consequences,  and  yet  have  no 
trust  in  Christ,  and  therefore  not  have  the  "  faith  in  his  blood,"  which 
is  spoken  of  here. 

It  is  not,  further,  a  belief  in  the  truth  of  all  the  principal  doctrines 
of  the  gospel.  This  is  a  step  beyond  the  last ;  for  there  are  many 
persons,  that  do  credit  the  gospel  to  be  a  revelation  from  God,  and  yet 
know  little  of  the  doctrines  it  contains  ;  nay,  reject  most  of  its  doc- 
trines. But  a  person  may  reject  none  of  them  —  may  admit  in  terms 
their  truth,  see  the  proofs  of  them  in  the  Scripture,  and  maintain  them 
all,  and  yet  that  person  may  have  no  faith  in  Christ.  Because,  Christ 
has  come  to  offer  salvation  to  us  as  sinners  ;  but  it  is  obvious,  that  a 
person  may  credit  the  truth  of  these  doctrines,  and  not  trust  in  Christ 


342  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

to  save  his  soul.  And  if  so,  he  is  an  unbeUever  :  he  disbelieves  that 
Christ  has  come  to  save  liis  soul.  He  may  be  destitute  of  all  trust  in 
Christ,  and  yet  believe  the  great  facts  of  the  gospel,  to  a  certain  de- 
gree and  in  a  certain  sense.  And  this  faith  is  that  which  is  possessed 
by  fallen  spirits,  who  know  very  well  the  great  truths  of  the  gospel, 
and  are  busily  engaged  in  opposing  them  in  the  world.  That  which  a 
man  only  shares  with  the  great  enemies  of  God  and  man,  cannot  be  the 
faith  which  saves. 

The  same  remarks  will  apply  to  this  further  stage  —  the  state  of  a 
person,  who  believes  that  Christ  Jesus  is  able  and  willing  to  save  others, 
but  does  not  believe  in  Christ  as  about  to  save  Mm.  For  this  also  he 
shares  with  fallen  beings.  "  The  devils  believe  and  tremble,"  when 
they  think  that  Christ  has  come  to  save  others,  but  has  not  come  to 
save  them ;  and  this  belief,  instead  of  teaching  them  to  love  Christ, 
only  embitters  their  hatred.  It  may  do  so  with  a  sinful  man,  and  con- 
sequently is  not  that  trust  in  Christ  which  will  save  him. 

And  again,  to  believe  in  our  own  personal  safety  through  Christ  is, 
on  the  other  hand,  not  justifying  faith.  Because,  many  an  ignorant 
and  criminal  enthusiast  has  believed  this,  while  his  whole  life  was  one 
of  disobedience  to  God's  commands,  and  of  manifest  enmity  to  God. 
To  beheve  that  we  are  personally  safe,  that  we  are  the  elect  of  God 
through  Christ,  that  we  are  through  Chvist  children  of  God,  and  the 
favorites  of  heaven,  and  sure  of  being  saved,  may  be  to  believe  a 
falsehood  —  a  mere  delusion.  It  may  be,  that  the  person  who  has 
this  belief,  is  none  of  those  things.  And  it  is  obvious,  that  if  the 
great  enemy  of  souls  could  desire  any  thing  respecting  one  of  his 
miserable  captives,  he  would  mostly  desire  this  ;  that  while  he  is  living 
in  his  sins,  and  posting  down  to  destruction,  he  should  be  perfectly 
persuaded,  that  he  was  one  of  God's  elect,  a  child  of  God  and  an  heir 
of  glory  through  Christ:  because,  that  delusion  would  prevent  repent- 
ance, and  would,  more  than  any  thing  else,  deepen  and  perpetuate  his 
sleep  of  sin. 

None  of  these  things  can  be  the  justifying  faith^^of  which  our  text 
speaks.     But  justifying  faith  is  — 

The  trust  which  a  sinner  feels  in  Christ,  to  save  him  from  hell,  as  a 
divine  Savior,  in  the  method  he  has  revealed,  by  his  atoning  sacrifice, 
and  by  his  sanctifying  Spirit. 

This  is  justifying  faith.  Let  us  briefly  illustrate  its  various  charac- 
teristics. 

It  must  be  a  trust  in  Christ  to  save  us.  We  must  see,  that  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  able  and  wiHing  to  save  us.  Because,  my  breth- 
ren, Christ  is  come  for  this  purpose.    It  is  this  blessing  he  offers  to  us. 


WHAT   IS   JUSTIFYING    FAITH?  343 

as  ruined  sinners.  He  has  assured  you  and  me,  that  he  is  able  and 
willing  to  save  us.  It  is  the  purpose  for  which  he  died  —  for  which 
the  Bible  has  been  written  ;  and  to  disbelieve  that,  would  be  to  disbe- 
lieve one  of  the  very  principal  truths  that  he  has  revealed,  the  princi- 
pal act  he  came  to  accomplish ;  and  would  be,  not  faith,  but  unbelief. 
To  disbelieve  that,  is  not  trust  in  Christ,  but  distrust  of  him ;  and  no 
one  can  suppose,  that  he  has  justifying  faith  in  Christ,  while  he  dis- 
believes one  of  the  principal  things  revealed  concerning  him.  As  we 
have  seen,  to  disbelieve  that,  is  to  be  in  the  condition  of  rebellious  and 
apostate  spirits  ;  and  that  is  not  the  trust,  that  he  will  bless.  On  the 
contrary,  to  believe  that  he  is  willing  and  able  to  save  us,  notwith- 
standing all  our  guilt,  in  the  midst  of  all  our  dangers,  with  the  sen- 
tence of  God's  law  pronounced  against  us,  in  the  face  of  an  obedience 
required  which  we  cannot  pay,  in  the  sight  of  a  disobedience  which 
merits  eternal  death  —  that  is  the  trust  he  asks  from  us  all.  The 
eternal  Son  of  God  demands  of  every  one  of  you,  and  of  me,  that  we 
do  individually  trust  him  to  save  us. 

It  is,  in  the  next  place,  a  trust  in  him  to  save  us  from  hell.  If  we 
should  trust  Christ  to  save  us  from  any  thing  less,  this  would  not  be  to 
credit  the  great  tnith  revealed  concerning  him.  We  do  in  fact  de- 
serve to  perish  ;  we  are  on  our  road  to  perdition,  till  that  blessed  mo- 
ment when  we  believe  on  Christ ;  God's  law  condemns  us,  and  gracious 
as  he  is,  he  will  certainly  execute  the  sentence  of  his  law  ;  from 
that  Christ  has  undertaken  to  save  us ;  and  to  disbelieve  that,  is,  again 
I  say,  to  be  an  unbeliever.  It  is  not  to  trust  him,  but  to  want  trust  in 
him  ;  it  is  not  faith,  but  unbelief;  and  he  who  should  beheve  any  thing 
else  of  Christ,  but  should  not  beheve  that  he  Is  able  and  willing  to  save 
him  from  hell  —  from  eternal  wrath  —  from  all  the  consequences  of 
his  transgression — would  not  be  a  believer  in  Christ.  But  if  we 
should  actually  perish  without  Christ,  and  he  has  come  to  save  us  from 
perishing,  as  his  word  continually  declares,  then  we  deserve  it ;  for  the 
Almighty  could  not  inflict  upon  us  that  which  we  do  not  merit.  Hence, 
to  believe  that  Christ  is  able  and  willing  to  save  us  from  hell.  Is  to 
believe  that  we  deserve  it ;  and  it  imphes  the  conviction  on  our  parts, 
that  we  are  lost  without  him,  that  there  is  no  method  of  salvation  but 
in  him,  that  he  alone  stands  between  us  and  everlasting  ruin,  that  if 
God  gave  us  our  desert  individually,  we  Individually  should  perish. 
This  is  what  faith  in  Christ  implies  ;  and  if  any  man  denies  that  of 
himself,  does  not  own  it,  questions  it,  puts  the  thought  aside,  does  not 
explicitly  and  solemnly  confess  it  to  himself  and  God,  he  may  rest 
assured  he  has  no  faith  in  Christ.      He  may  believe  other  things 


344  THE   ENGLISH  PDLPIT. 

respecting  Christ ;  but  the  great  truth  that  he  has  come  to  save  him 
from  eternal  ruin,  that  man  rejects. 

I  said,  again,  that  justifying  faith  is  the  persuasion,  that  Christ  is 
able  and  willing  to  save  us  from  hell,  as  a  divine  Savior.  Because,  he 
cannot  save  us  in  any  other  capacity.  If  Christ  were  a  mere  man,  his 
obedience  and  his  sufferings  could  no  more  save  us,  than  the  obedience 
and  sufferings  of  any  martyr,  like  Paul,  or  like  Bradford.  Christ's 
obedience  and  sufferings  would  be  no  more  rational  a  foundation  for  our 
hope,  were  he  but  a  man,  than  the  obedience  and  sufferings  of  other 
holy  men  ;  and  if  we  were  to  expect  to  be  saved  by  Christ  as  a  man, 
instead  of  exercising  the  faith  he  looks  for,  we  should  be  unbelievers 
still.  For  the  truth  is,  that  his  love  passes  all  knowledge,  as  liis  merit 
passes  all  knowledge,  because  as  incarnate  God  he  died  in  our  stead. 
And  hence,  if  we  were  to  deny  this  of  iiim,  we  should  deny  the  principal 
truth  concerning  him.  We  may  call  ourselves  Christians  after  denying 
it,  but  we  have  altered  not  one  truth  —  as  men  pretend  —  we  have 
altered  the  whole  truth  respecting  the  gospel ;  fundamentally  altered 
it ;  changed  the  whole  character  of  a  sinner's  trust ;  swept  away  at 
one  fell  blow  all  those  powerful  motives  we  have  to  obedience  and  love ; 
sentenced  man,  as  the  consequence  of  that  denial,  to  perpetual  disobe- 
dience and  enmity  to  God.  And  that  men  call  altering  one  of  the 
dogmas  of  Christianity  !  No,  brethren  ;  if  we  do  not  rest  on  Christ  as 
a  divine  Savior,  who  has  come  in  our  nature  to  rescue  us  from  the  hell 
we  merited,  we  have  no  justifying  faith  in  him.  It  is  such  a  faith  as 
Nero  had  when  he  heard  of  his  crucifixion ;  such  a  faith  as  Pontius  Pilate 
had,  when  he  sentenced  him  to  death ;  the  belief  that  he  is  a  good 
man :  a  beUef  which  does  him  infinite  dishonor.  To  believe  in  Christ  so 
as  to  be  saved,  is  to  look  to  him  to  save  us  from  hell  as  a  divine  Savior. 

I  said,  again,  that  justifying  faith  in  Christ  is  the  belief  in  him  as  a 
divine  Savior,  to  save  us  in  the  method  he  has  himself  revealed,  hy  Ms 
atoning  sacrifice  ;  or  rather,  by  his  redemption  —  by  his  obedience  and 
sufferings  on  our  behalf.  If  we  should  look  to  be  saved  in  any  other 
way  than  by  his  atoning  sacrifice,  we  should  essentially  mutilate  his 
gospel,  deny  his  claim,  and  discard  that  which  is  the  principal  founda- 
tion of  our  confidence  before  God.  The  word  of  God  declares,  that 
we  are  "justified  freely,  by  God's  mercy,  through  the  redemption  that 
is  in  Christ  Jesus."  To  believe  that  Christ  came  to  set  us  a  bright 
example,  and  to  give  us  wise  and  divine  counsels,  and  to  animate  us 
with  powerful  motives  to  virtue,  and  there  to  end,  and  there  to  let  our 
faith  terminate,  is  to  deny  the  one  great  truth  revealed  in  all  this  book, 
for  which  this  book  has  been  revealed  —  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
incarnate  God  in  our  nature,  died  in  our  place,  bore  the  punishment  we 


WHAT   IS   JUSTIFYING   FAITH  ?  345 

must  have  borne,  and  by  that  punishment  borne  in  his  person,  has  done 
away  the  necessity  that  we  should  suffer  any  punishment.  If  we  ex- 
pected to  be  saved  in  any  other  way,  we  should  not  be  believing  God, 
but  believing  a  falsehood  ;  we  should  not  then  be  trusting  Christ  to 
save  us  according  to  his  own  revealed  method,  but  in  another  method 
of  our  own,  which  would  dishonor  him,  and  be  a  reason  for  our  con- 
demnation, and  not  for  our  acceptance  before  God.  Hence,  justifying 
faith  is  a  dependence  on  Christ  to  save  us  by  the  merit  of  his 
obedience  and  his  suiferings. 

And  lastly,  justifying  faith  is  an  expectation  of  being  saved  by  him 
from  hell,  not  only  by  the  merit  of  his  atoning  sacrifice,  but  hy  the 
power  of  his  sanctifying  Spirit.  This,  again,  is  revealed  in  Scripture. 
He  has  told  us,  that  he  means  to  save  us  thus,  and  in  no  other  way. 
He  has  never  promised  a  person  to  save  him  in  sin,  but  has  declared 
he  means  to  save  nsfrom  sin.  He  has  not  said,  that  he  would  save 
us  without  the  aid  of  the  Spirit,  but  by  giving  us  the  Spirit.  He  has 
not  told  us,  that  he  will  save  us  without  the  exertion  to  which  grace 
prompts,  but  by  that  exertion.  There  is  no  word  of  Scripture,  which 
states  that  we  shall  be  saved  with  unholy  hearts,  but  —  "  without  holi- 
ness no  man  shall  see  the  Lord  ?  "  not  one  word,  which  intimates  that 
prayerless  habits  will  conduct  us  to  glory,  but  —  "  whosoever  shall  call 
on  the  name  of  the  Lord  shall  be  saved ; "  and  so  on,  of  the  whole 
circle  of  Christian  obligation.  To  beheve,  therefore,  that  Christ  will 
save  us  without  making  us  holy,  and  without  conducting  us  to  loving 
obedience,  is  to  believe  a  falsehood.  It  is  to  deny  what  he  has 
declared.  It  is  not  to  trust  him  —  to  exercise  faith  on  him  ;  for  faith 
must  rest  on  his  Word  ;  there  is  no  other  foundation  for  it.  It  is  to  be 
placing  a  presumptuous  confidence  in  a  mischievous  and  criminal  delu- 
sion.    That  is  not  faith. 

To  believe  in  Christ  as  the  Savior  of  our  souls  from  hell,  secures 
obedience  in  another  way,  and  leads  in  another  manner  to  a  supreme 
love  to  Christ ;  but  you  will  observe,  that  it  not  only  leads  to  it — it 
actually  involves  it.  Because,  faith  in  Christ  involves  submission  to 
his  will :  just  as  faith  in  a  guide  involves  the  disposition  to  follow  him, 
or  faith  in  a  commander  involves  the  readiness  to  march  and  fight  at 
his  command,  or  faith  in  a  physician  the  determination  to  take  his 
medicines.  Should  a  man  be  lost  amidst  dangerous  precipices,  and  not 
know  how  to  effect  his  escape,  and  a  guide  well  versed  in  the  mountain 
paths  should  point  out  the  road  of  safety,  and  assure  him  that  if  ho 
followed  it,  he  would  be  safe  ;  faith  in  that  mountain  guide  would  lead 
the  lost  pilgrim  at  once  to  follow.  If  an  army  were  surrounded  by 
perils,  and  expecting  to  be  destroyed,  but  their  commander  assured 


346  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

them  that  he  would  point  out  the  road  to  victory,  if  they  marched  un- 
der his  orders,  and  fought  at  his  command  ;  faith  in  that  commander 
would  lead  them,  necessarily,  to  march  and  to  fight.  If  men  were 
persuaded  that  their  physician  could  save  them  by  the  remedies  he 
prescribed,  faith  in  that  physician  would  lead  them  to  adopt  those  rem- 
edies. In  every  instance  faith  has  thus  this  practical  character; 
leading  to  submission  to  those  methods,  which  the  person  in  whom  we 
trust,  makes  the  conditions  of  safety.  And  hence,  to  trust  in  Christ 
for  our  salvation,  not  only  leads  to  loving  him,  and  leads  to  obeying 
him,  (as  it  is  most  certain  it  does,)  but  likewise  it  includes  in  the  very 
idea  of  it  the  placing  ourselves  absolutely  under  Christ's  care.  He 
offers  to  save  us  in  one  way  and  to  trust  that  he  will  save  us  in  that 
way,  is  to  submit  to  that  way.  So  that  if  we  believe  in  Christ  to  save 
us  by  communicating  his  sanctifying  Spirit,  it  implies  that  we  seek 
that  Spirit ;  if  we  believe  that  he  will  save  us  by  making  us  holy,  it 
implies  that  we  consent  to  be  made  holy  ;  if  we  believe  that  he  will 
save  us  in  the  course  of  obedience  to  God's  law,  it  implies  that  from 
the  moment  we  believe  we  are  ready  so  to  obey.  Imagine  for  a  mo- 
ment the  contrary ;  that  a  person  should  believe  that  he  shall  be  saved 
by  Christ  while  he  resolves  not  to  obey,  not  to  be  holy,  not  to  welcome 
the  gift  of  his  Spirit ;  then  he  would  believe  in  that  which  was  false, 
instead  of  beheving  in  Christ,  for  Christ  has  never  promised  to  save 
any  one,  who  is  nourishing  those  tempers. 

Thus  we  come  to  this  general  truth  :  that  justifying  faith  in  Christ 
is  the  trust  that  any  one  feels  in  him,  to  save  himself  from  eternal 
death,  as  a  divine  Savior,  in  the  method  he  has  himself  revealed,  by 
his  atoning  sacrifice,  and  by  his  sanctifying  grace. 

To  what  extent,  let  us  ask,  in  the  next  place,  does  the  possession  of 
this  faith  justify  ?  "  Whom  God  hath  set  forth  to  be  a  propitiation 
through  faith  in  his  blood." 

I  have  often  dwelt  on  the  scriptural  proofs  of  this  point  in  our  sub- 
ject ;  I  shall  therefore  merely  remind  you  in  passing,  that  this  faith  is 
spoken  of  in  Scripture,  as  justifying  by  itself —  as  the  one  sole  condi- 
tion of  justification.  "  Therefore  we  conclude,"  says  the  apostle,  in  a 
verse  which  follows  our  text,  "  that  a  man  is  justified  hj  faith ^  without 
the  deeds  of  the  law."  This  justifying  faith  is  further  declared,  in 
Scripture  to  secure  the  acquittal  of  any  person  who  trusts  Christ.  It 
is  not  the  less  guilty  only,  but  the  most  guilty  may  secure  acquittal 
and  safety  by  its  instrumentality.  As  the  apostle  here  tells  us  —  "  the 
righteousness  of  God  is  by  faith  of  Jesus  Christ  unto  all  and  upon  all 
them  that  believe  ;  for  there  is  no  difference."     The  worst  and  the 


WHAT    IS   JUSTIFYING    FAITH?  347 

best,  all  maj  alike  be  justified,  upon  their  receiving  this  inestimable 
gift  of  God ;  and  he  who  believes,  is  pardoned  and  accepted.  The 
Scripture  no  less  declares,  that  those  who  possess  this  justifying  faith, 
are  acquitted  of  all  their  sins,  and  are  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  of 
the  new  covenant.  "  By  him  all  that  believe  are  justified  from  all 
things."  The  justification  is  complete  ;  so  that  a  sinner  is  accepted 
as  though  he  was  perfectly  innocent,  becomes  a  child  of  God,  and  is 
adopted  by  his  love,  and  receives  all  the  blessings  of  his  children,  in- 
cluding preservation  by  his  power  and  grace,  and  then  eternal  glory, 
which  he  has  received  for  all  who  love  him  and  obey  him.  And  again : 
this  justifying  grace  secures  all  these  privileges,  the  very  first  moment 
it  is  exercised.  As  there  is  nothing  else  —  nothing  whatever  — 
which  is  the  condition  of  justification,  therefore  years  of  obedience 
can  add  nothing  to  it.  The  moment  a  sinner  believes,  he  passes  from 
a  state  of  condemnation  into  a  state  of  justification.  The  dying  thief 
beUeved  upon  Christ,  and  he  merited  eternal  death,  and  was  within  a 
few  minutes  of  it,  but,  in  that  moment  when  he  believed,  all  his  sins 
were  pardoned,  and  at  once  Christ  said  to  him,  "  This  day  shalt  thou 
be  with  me  in  Paradise."  And  that  is  the  rule  ;  that  is  what  must 
ensue.  If  it  be  true  that  faith  is  the  one  condition,  the  one  instrument  of 
the  sinner's  justification,  then  the  moment  he  possesses  that  one  instru- 
ment, the  moment  he  has  fulfilled  that  one  condition,  he  is  a  justified 
person.  To  delay  it,  would  be  to  interfere  with  that  divinely  ordained 
method  of  justification  ;  it  would  be  to  bring  in  something  else  as  the 
condition  ;  and  it  could  be  easily  shown,  that  the  introduction  of  any 
delay  would  be  the  dishonor  of  Christ.  If  faith  in  him  is  the  one 
appointed  condition,  the  moment  that  any  sinner,  however  black  the 
guilt  which  he  has  contracted,  does  rest  his  soul  upon  Christ  as  the 
one  great  atoning  sacrifice,  and  the  prevailing  intercessor,  that  moment 
are  his  sins  obliterated,  and  he  is  adopted  into  the  family  of  God. 

Let  us  now,  in  the  last  place,  consider  for  a  moment  the  manner  in 
which  this  faith  justifies. 

We  have  already  seen,  that  a  sinner  is  justified  without  the  deeds 
of  the  law  ;  "  and  this  proves,  not  merely  that  a  sinner  is  justified  with- 
out the  merit  of  the  law,  without  the  merit  of  works,  but  that  he  is 
justified  without  the  condition  of  works  ;  and  that  it  is  as  unscriptural, 
to  declare  that  fiiith  on  the  condition  of  works  justifies,  as  to  say  that 
faith  justifies  by  the  merit  of  Christ  and  the  merit  of  works.  There  is 
no  condition  of  works  ;  and  could  there  be,  it  must  be  obvious  to  the 
dullest  understanding  that  two  things  would  follow  :  first,  that  the  being 
justified  by  works,  as  a  condition  appointed  by  God  in  addition  to  that 


348  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

of  faith,  would  so  far  obscure  the  glory  of  the  Savior,  through  whose 
sole  merit  the  sinner  is  accepted ;  and  next,  that  it  would  necessarily 
and  invariably  lead  each  person  to  trust  his  own  works,  rather  than 
Christ.  It  would  be  vain,  to  tell  persons  that  there  was  no  merit  in 
those  works,  but  that  their  works  were  the  condition  of  justification, 
just  as  their  faith  was  ;  inevitably  and  necessarily,  they  would  attach 
the  idea  of  their  justification  and  salvation  to  those  works,  and  on  those 
works  they  would  rest.  And  thus,  both  a  sinner  would  be  separated 
from  that  exclusive  confidence  in  the  merit  of  Christ  which  he  ought 
to  feel,  and  the  merit  of  Christ  would  be  necessarily  obscured  by  the 
very  fact  of  such  a  condition. 

'  Grod  has  made  no  such  condition.  The  one  condition  is  faith.  And 
since  the  Redeemer  is  the  sole  meritorious  cause  of  the  justification  of 
any  sinner,  we  see  that  it  must  be  becoming  and  fitting  in  the  Al- 
mighty, to  grant  the  sinner's  justification  in  such  a  way,  as  shall  give 
Christ  all  the  ^lory.  He  has,  therefore,  made  faith  the  sole  condition ; 
because  it  is  most  obvious,  that  by  faith  as  the  sole  condition  does 
Christ  receive,  as  he  ought,  all  the  glory.  Let  a  sinner  trust  in  Christ 
alone  for  his  salvation  from  eternal  death  ;  and  then,  placing  himself 
as  a  ruined  creature  under  Christ's  care,  it  is  what  you  might  expect 
from  the  infinite  mercy  of  that  gracious  Redeemer,  that  he  should 
welcome  such  a  humble  penitent.  "  Him  that  cometh  to  me  I  will  in 
no  wise  cast  out."  If  we  apply  to  Christ  for  salvation  with  no  other 
plea  than  this,  that  we  are  ruined,  and  he  is  a  mighty  and  a  gracious 
Savior.  Christ  asks  nothing  else.  What  else  should  he  ask  ?  An 
atonement  ?  He  came  himself  to  atone.  Holiness  and  love  ?  He 
came,  not  to  find  them  in  the  rebellious,  but  to  create  them  both.  He 
asks,  therefore,  nothing  else  ;  but  if  a  humbled  sinner  feels  that  he  is 
ruined,  and  applies  to  Christ  as  a  gracious  and  mighty  Savior,  to  res- 
cue him  from  eternal  death,  Christ  is  gracious  enough  to  welcome  him. 
He  becomes  Christ's  disciple  ;  he  receives  all  through  Christ ;  and  as 
a  humble  penitent,  renouncing  his  rebellion,  he  both  acknowledges  his 
own  ruin,  trusts  the  merit  of  the  Savior  in  opposition  to  a  trust  in  the 
mere  mercy  of  God,  and  in  opposition  to  a  trust  in  any  merit  of  his 
own,  and  so  submits  to  Christ's  method  of  saving  him,  and  places 
himself  under  his  dominion,  to  be  sanctified  and  guided  from  that 
day.  For  such  Christ  intercedes  ;  welcoming  the  penitent  believer, 
who  gives  him  all  the  glory,  he  now  intercedes  for  him  ;  and  God 
accepts  the  intercession  ;  and  that  penitent  believer  trusting  exclu- 
sively to  Christ,  is  welcomed  through  his  intercession.  At  the 
same  time,  you  may  see,  that  when  a  person  thus  trusts  in  Christ 
alone,   he  does  what  in   him  lies,  to   proclaim   to    the   whole  world 

9 


WHAT   IS   JUSTIFYING   FAITH  ?  849 

around  him  his  sense  of  the  enonnitj  of  sin,  Avhich  could  be  par 
doncd  by  no  other  sacrifice  than  Christ's ;  and  his  sense  of  the 
hoUness  and  truth  of  God,  who  would  admit  him  on  no  other  terms  ; 
and  his  sense  of  the  infinite  mercy  and  infinite  merit  of  Christ,  through 
whom  he  is  accepted ;  and  his  sense  of  the  need  that  his  rebellious 
heart  should  be  brought  back  again  to  God,  by  his  submitting  to  be 
saved  by  his  sanctifying  grace  ;  and  by  this  does  he  give  all  the  glory 
in  a  sinner's  power  to  that  great  and  gracious  Savior. 

What  other  instrument  of  justification  can  be  so  suitable  as  this  ? 
We  see,  on  the  one  hand,  that  God  will  justify  a  sinner  because  of 
Christ's  righteousness,  and  will  give  to  Christ  all  the  glory ;  we  see, 
on  the  other  hand,  an  instrument  of  justification,  by  Avhich  all  the  glory 
is  rendered  to  Christ ;  and  it  must  be  plain  to  the  commonest  under- 
standing, that  that  instrument,  and  none  other,  is  that  which  may  be 
most  honorable  to  God,  to  order  and  establish  as  the  one  condition  of, 
a  sinner's  salvation.  Is  there  merit  in  this  act  of  faith  ?  No  more 
than  there  was  in  Peter,  when,  because  he  was  sinking  in  the  water, 
he  trusted  Christ's  power  and  love  to  save  him  from  it.  No  more  than 
there  was  in  the  army  of  Israel,  when  they  believed  that  the  power  of 
God  would  divide  for  them  the  Red  Sea,  and  carry  them  in  safety 
through  it.  No  more  merit,  than  there  is  in  the  destitute  and  dying 
welcoming  the  alms,  that  may  save  them  from  destruction.  There  is 
no  merit  in  faith.  It  is  not  by  faith  as  a  work,  by  faith  as  a  meritori- 
ous attainment,  that  any  sinner  is  justified  ;  but  it  is  by  the  riches  of 
Christ,  which  faith  apprehends,  and  lays  hold  upon.  It  is  by  that 
which  gives  to  Christ  all  the  glory,  and  precludes  all  merit  in  the 
sinner,  that  God  has  determined  to  justify  every  sinner  who  is  justified. 

If  this,  my  brethren,  be  the  plain,  scriptural  account  of  the  way  in 
which  a  sinner  is  justified  by  God,  it  is  very  easy  to  see  how  important 
it  is,  that  you  and  I  should  not  alone  reason  about  faith,  not  alone 
talk  about  faith,  but  should  have  this  justifying  faith.  In  fact, 
it  is  impossible  for  me  adequately  to  state  the  importance  of 
obtaining  this  blessing.  All  blessings  flow  from  it.  Once  obtain 
this  saving  faith  in  Christ,  and  we  are  glorious  forever.  Once 
obtain  it,  and  the  attributes  of  God  are  around  us,  like  a  fortress, 
that  no  evil  can  invade.  Once  obtain  it,  and  the  privileges  of  the 
new  covenant  of  grace  are  ours.  Without  it,  we  are  shut  out  from 
salvation,  and  honor,  and  happiness.  No  words  can  express  the 
importance  of  every  living  and  thinking  soul  in  this  congregation 
getting  this  faith.  We  must  have  it.  We  shall  be  lost  without  it. 
We  shall  hasten  down  to  ruin,  if  we  have  not  faith ;  and  the  more  we 
know  of  it,  the  more  convinced  we  are  of  it.  the  worse  will  it  be  for  us 


350  •  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

if  we  do  not  get  it.  That  faith  must  bum  in  our  bosoms,  as  the  prin- 
ciple of  eternal  life,  or  we  perish.     We  must  have  it,  or  we  die. 

Does  any  one  here  say  —  I  cannot  have  it ;  I  have  no  faith,  and  I 
cannot  have  it  ?  What  does  that  mean  —  I  cannot  have  faith  ?  Is 
Christ  deserving  your  confidence  ?  Are  God's  invitations  plain  and 
certain  ?  Is  it  necessary  to  escape  from  hell,  and  to  reach  heaven  ? 
Must  you  be  happy  ?  Have  you  an  indestructible  thirst  after  happi- 
ness ?  Is  the  way  to  happiness  made  plain  before  you  ?  Why,  then,  do 
you  not  take  it  ?     What  is  the  meaning  of  saying,  I  cannot  believe  ? 

It  means  tliis,  as  you  must  see  if  you  recall  what  justifying  faith  is  : 
I  cannot  see  that  I  am  a  lost  sinner  ;  I  will  not  own  it ;  and  therefore 
I  cannot  trust  Christ's  atoning  sacrifice,  and  Christ's  sanctifying  grace. 
Is  tlds  what  it  means  ?  Then  what  fatal  pride  there  is  in  that  man, 
or  woman,  or  child,  in  this  congregation,  that  ventures,  in  the  face 
of  facts  that  will  silence  all  of  us  when  we  stand  before  the  judg- 
ment seat,  and  ought  to  silence  all  of  us  now,  to  say  —  I  cannot  own 
that  I  am  a  hell-doomed  sinner ;  I  cannot  own  that  I  merit  my  Maker's 
eternal  curse  ?  We  shall  see  it  plainly  enough  hereafter,  if  we  do  not 
see  it  now ;  and  there  is  nothing  to  account  for  the  dulness  of  our 
vision,  but  the  pride  of  our  hearts.  What  fatal  pride,  if  we  should 
have  to  own  before  God  at  the  last,  that  in  the  face  of  all  the  clearest 
demonstration  of  his  word,  his  attributes,  and  the  workings  of  our  own 
common  sense,  we  denied  that  we  deserved  his  eternal  wrath  ! 

Or  does  it  mean  —  I  cannot  trust  Christ's  great  sacrifice,  and  per- 
fect obedience,  and  declared  love  ?  What  ingratitude  to  him !  what 
causeless  unbelief!  Is  it  true,  or  is  it  not  true,  that  that  unseen,  but 
Almighty  Savior  is  ready  to  intercede  for  you,  and  give  you  his  Spirit, 
and  carry  you  to  heaven  ?  Is  it  true,  or  is  it  not,  that  there  is  not  one 
soul  in  this  congregation,  for  whom  Christ  Jesus  did  not  give  his  blood, 
and  whom  he  is  not  now  ready  to  make  a  child  of  God  and  an  heir  of 
heaven  ?  What  fatal,  what  damnable  unbelief,  if  notwithstanding  all 
this,  any  one  in  this  congregation  says  —  I  cannot  trust  him  ! 

Or  does  it  mean,  that  because  he  has  revealed  that  he  will  save  you 
by  making  you  holy,  by  leading  you  to  obey,  by  making  you  mortify 
your  sins,  by  giving  you  the  sanctifying  spirit  through  which  all  this 
may  be  done,  you  cannot  submit  to  that ;  you  must  hold  your  sins  ; 
you  must  still  live  in  that  which  God  forbids  ;  you  must  still  cherish 
that  which  God's  law  condemns  ?  Why,  in  the  face  of  such  fearful 
sanctions,  and  notwithstanding  such  plain  and  reiterated  commands, 
and  when  such  infinite  mercy  is  extended  to  you,  to  refuse  salvation 
because  you  will  cling  to  sin  —  oh !  it  must  silence  every  one  at  the 
last,  if  nothing  else  did ;  it  must  strike  such  an  arrow  of  remorse  into 


WHAT  16   JUoTIFYlXG   FAITH?  351 

the  miserable  soul,  that  will  have  then  to  own  —  I  might  have  been 
rescued  and  blessed  for  ever,  but  I  would  not  give  up  my  rebellion 
against  God.  Alas  I  alas !  it  will  deepen  all  the  gloom  of  the  con- 
demnation, that  is  resting  upon  you  already. 

But  if  still  you  tell  me  that  you  are  obliged  to  say,  I  cannot  believe  ; 
are  you  to  sit  down  ki  despair  ?  Here  is  a  fearful  load  of  guilt  upon 
you ;  must  you  sit  down  in  despair  ?  Do  you  say  —  What  can  I  do  ? 
I  am  lost,  I  shall  sink  into  perdition,  I  have  not  beUeved,  I  cannot 
believe ;  all  this  is  true,  but  I  must  sink  into  perdition,  helpless  and 
hopeless  ?  You  only  half  believe  that ;  or  you  would  not  sit  still  and 
do  nothing.  Depend  upon  it,  when  any  man  says,  I  must  sit  still  and 
do  nothing,  because  I  cannot  believe,  ho  has  only  half  a  conviction  of 
his  melancholy  state.  A  little  deeper  conviction  of  the  absolute  and 
intolerable  misery  to  which  such  a  state  is  leading,  would  make  you  at 
once  begin  to  be  active  in  doing  what  you  can.  , 

Do  you  say  —  What  can  we  do  ?  There  are  many  things,  God's 
Word  declares  you  not  only  can,  but  must  do.  It  is  our  duty  to 
believe  in  Christ  at  once.  It  is  the  duty  of  every  man,  woman,  and 
child  in  this  assembly,  to  believe  in  Christ  now.  There  is  evidence 
that  ought  to  convince  every  one,  at  once,  vrithout  any  further  exami- 
nation ;  and  the  obligations  resting  upon  us  are  such,  that  not  one 
night  ought  to  be  lost ;  not  one  minute's  delay  ought  to  be  interposed. 
Christ  offers  you  and  me  salvation,  if  we  trust  him  ;  and  it  is  our  duty 
to  trust  him  now.  We  are  lost,  and  he  offers  to  save  us  from  hell  by 
his  atoning  sacrifice,  by  his  sanctifying  Spirit ;  and  he  only  asks  us  to 
trust  him.     We  ought  to  trust  him  7iow. 

But  if  the  hardness  of  any  heart  forbids  it ;  if  the  habitual  unbe- 
lief of  any  heart  forbids ;  if  the  devoted  love  of  sin,  which  still  mas- 
ters any  one,  forbids  it ;  then  what  must  follow  ?  To  do  nothing  ? 
No.  Listen  to  God's  Word,  as  you  hope  to  be  saved.  God  has 
required  of  just  such  persons  —  "  Wash  you,  make  you  clean  ;  put 
away  the  evil  of  your  doings  from  before  mine  eyes  ;  cease  to  do  evil ; 
learn  to  do  well ;  seek  judgment,  relieve  the  oppressed,  judge  the 
fatherless,  plead  for  the  widow.  Come  now,  and  let  us  reason  together, 
saith  the  Lord  ;  though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  as  white 
as  snow  ;  though  they  be  red  like  crimson,  they  shall  be  as  wool." 
Break  off  every  hal)it  of  sin.  Keep  out  of  the  way  of  temptation. 
Forsake  the  company  that  tempts.  Do  what  you  obviously  can.  No 
one  compels  you  to  seek  bad  company ;  no  one  compels  you  to  place 
yourself  in  the  way  of  temptation ;  Satan  cannot  compel  you  to  any 
external  act.      Therefore,  break  these  things  off.      Break  off  what- 


352  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

ever,  in  fact,  interferes  with  your  seeking  salvation.  Break  it  off  at 
once.     It  is  God's  command. 

Is  there  nothing  that  you  can  do  ?  God's  Word  declares  —  "  Who- 
soever shall  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord  shall  be  saved."  Cannot 
you  call  on  him  ?  Cannot  you  at  once  begin  to  seek  God's  mercy  ? 
But  you  have  not  faith  ;  and  you  have  not  earnestness.  Still,  call  on 
him  as  you  can.  Begin  to  pray.  Fasten  upon  your  mind  the  neces- 
sity of  salvation  ;  and  let  the  cry  of  your  natural  distress,  if  not  the 
prayer  of  faith,  ascend  up  before  God. 

God  has  said  in  his  Word  —  "  The  law  is  our  schoolmaster  to  bring 
us  to  Christ."  Then,  in  other  words,  it  is  when  men  perceive  how  the 
law  condemns  them,  that  they  flee  to  Christ  as  the  only  Savior.  Do 
not  get  rid  of  the  sense  of  guilt ;  but  fasten  it  on  your  mind.  Medi- 
tate on  God's  holy  law  ;  look  at  all  its  precepts  ;  apply  them  jo  your 
own  case ;  see  how  you  have  violated  them  ;  acknowledge  the  con- 
demnation that  law  pronounces.  Let  the  humihating  thought  rest 
there,  till  it  compels  you  to  seek  salvation  by  Christ.  "  The  law  is  our 
schoolmaster  to  bring  us  unto  Christ,  that  we  may  be  justified  by  faith." 

Meditate,  further,  as  you  can,  upon  the  gospel  of  Christ:  for 
"  faith,"  we  read,  "  cometh  by  hearing,  and  hearing  by  the  Word  of 
God."  When  any  one  will  day  by  day  read  the  Scriptures  solemnly 
and  seriously,  and  endeavor  to  understand  them,  and  to  impress  them 
on  his  mind,  it  may  be  the  duty  in  which  God  meets  him.  In  the 
absence  of  that,  how  can  you  expect  the  blessing  ?  If  you  despise 
God's  Word,  if  you  neglect  his  gospel,  can  you  look  for  salvation  ? 
Read  it ;  meditate  upon  it.  You  may  find,  as  thousands  have,  that  in 
that  obedience,  however  imperfect,  to  God's  will,  he  may  meet  with 
you  and  save  you. 

If  you  feel  still,  that  all  this  may  leave  you  yet  unsaved,  because 
none  of  these  things  can  sanctify,  (which  is  most  true,)  remember, 
faith  is  the  gift  of  his  Spirit.  It  is  not  wrought  by  us  ;  it  is  wrought 
by  him,  as  many  passages  with  which  you  are  acquainted  tell  you.  If 
it  be  wrought  by  him ;  if  no  man  can  enter  heaven  except  he  be 
regenerate  by  the  Spirit,  and  it  is  he  who  imparts  the  faith,  by  which 
a  sinner  lays  hold  on  Christ ;  then  recollect  that  Christ  has  said,  God 
is  more  wiUing  to  give  you  that  Holy  Spirit,  if  you  ask  him,  than  you, 
if  the  most  loving  parent,  are  willing  to  give  the  commonest  blessing 
to  your  child.  Christ  has  said  so,  and  God  will  do  it.  Then  wait  on 
him.  Ask  for  that  Spirit.  Ask  it  frequently ;  ask  it  day  by  day ; 
never  cease  from  asking,  for  "  men  ought  always  to  pray,  and  not  to 
faint."     Ask  on,  till  God  grants  you  that  necessary  blessing. 

These  things,  at  least,  you  can  do ;  and  there  are  other  similar 


ERRORS  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME.  353 

directions  in  God's  Word,  for  those  who  are  as  yet  in  their  sins.  And 
till  all  these  are  done,  and  have  been  done  long  in  vain,  do  not  say 
you  can  do  nothing.  If  you  say  so,  my  dear  hearer,  it  is,  depend 
upon  it,  because  you  are  only  half  convinced.  Once  thoroughly  per- 
suaded that  you  are  ruined  without  Christ,  you  will  gratefully  seize 
the  opportunities  for  these  habits,  which  he  has  required  you  at  once, 
as  condemned  sinners,  to  exercise  and  to  cultivate. 

But  how  can  we  express  adequately,  my  Christian  brethren,  the 
gratitude  we  ought  to  have  to  God  through  Christ,  if  indeed  he  has 
given  us  this  inestimable  blessing  ?  How  can  we  sufficiently  deplore 
the  condition  of  some  among  us,  to  whom  it  seems  almost  impossible 
that  they  should  believe ;  to  whom  the  difficulty  in  their  way  seems 
almost  insuperable  ?  "  And  yet  God  has  taught  us  to  believe.  Why  ? 
Why  do  we  rest  on  Christ  this  night  ?  Why  do  we  now  look  up  to 
our  most  loving  Savior,  to  deliver  us  from  our  guilt  and  ruin,  from  the 
curse  of  the  law,  from  the  malice  of  Satan,  from  his  temptations,  from 
the  eternal  wrath  we  have  merited,  from  all  evil ;  and  to  place  us 
amongst  his  people  in  glory  ?  Why,  with  a  consciousness  perhaps  as 
complete  as  any  one  can  have,  that  we  are  utterly  deserving  of  eternal 
wrath,  have  we  yet  this  confidence  in  Christ  ?  Oh  !  brethren,  it  is  a 
blessing  from  God,  for  which  it  is  impossible  we  should  be  sufficiently 
thankful.  Let  us  day  by  day  exercise  that  faith.  Let  not  a  day  go 
by,  without  our  trusting  in  Christ  still  to  save  us.  And  may  that  con- 
fidence in  him  become  more  and  more  simple  and  complete. 


SERMON    XXIX. 

DUTY   OF   ASSAILING  THE   ERRORS    OF   TEE   CHURCH   OF  ROME. 
BY    REV.   JOHN   GUMMING,    D.  D. 

"  Pnt  yourselves  in  array  against  Babylon  round  about ;  all  ye  that  bend  the  bow  shoot 
at  her,  spare  no  arrows;  for  she  hath  siuneJ  against  the  Lord." — Jer.  1.  14. 

There  can  be  no  question,  my  Christian  brethren,  that  Babylon  la 
the  type  and  emblem  of  the  popish  apostacy.  The  eighteenth  chapter 
of  Revelations,  which  we  have  read  this  evening,  and  other  parallel 
portions  of  the  inspired  record,  abundantly  demonstrate  this.  But,  as 
there  are  several  features  which  confirm  this  identity,  we  will  en- 
deavor, in  humble  dependence  on  grace  divine,  to  lay  them  before  you. 
23 


354  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

Idolatry  was  the  sin  emblazoned  on  the  forehead  of  ancient  Baby- 
lon, incorporated  with  her  laws,  and  interwoven  with  her  habits.  Her 
idols  of  silver  and  gold  were  commensurate  with  the  fantasies  of  the 
human  heart,  and  with  the  passions  of  men.  Now,  if  we  turn  to  the 
antitype,  the  church  of  Rome,  we  find  that  there  is  no  one  character- 
istic more  apparent  than  her  idolatry.  If  she  does  not  worship  Baal, 
and  Chemosh,  and  Jupiter,  and  Juno,  and  the  other  gods  of  the 
heathen,  she  has  at  least  covered  or  removed  their  images,  and  placed 
in  their  niches,  in  the  christened  Pantheon,  those  of  Peter,  and  Paul, 
and  Mary.  Jesuits  may  make  metaphysical  distinctions  between  doulia 
and  latria,  between  veneration  and  worship  ;  but  the  fact  is  not  to  be 
denied,  that  before  these  images  of  gold  and  silver,  papists  prostrate 
themselves,  and  offer  to  the  idol,  and  not  to  the  being  which  it  repre- 
sents, very  worship,  and  very  prayer  and  praise.  Thus  the  second 
commandment  is  broken,  and  idolatry  chargeable  on  the  church  of 
Rome,  and  consequently  her  identity  with  ancient  Babylon  is  manifest 
in  one  feature  at  least. 

Again.  A  feature  in  ancient  Babylon  which  stamped  her  guilt  with 
peculiar  depth  and  dye,  was  her  using  the  golden  vessels  of  the  sanc- 
tuary of  Jehovah  in  her  idolatrous  rites.  It  was  this  attempt  to  blend 
the  high  heavens  with  hell  —  this  minghng  of  the  cups  of  the  Lord 
amid  the  cups  of  demons — that  drew  down  the  wrath  of  God,  and 
nerved  the  hand  which  wrote  upon  the  plaster  "  weighed  and  found 
wanting."  Is  not  this  feature  clearly  developed  in  the  church  of 
Rome  ?  Are  not  the  rites  of  ancient  paganism  —  her  lustrations,  pro- 
cessions, incense,  &c.  intermingled  with  the  pure  rites  of  Christian 
truth  ?  Are  not  St.  Peter's  and  the  Pantheon  made  to  coalesce  by 
mutual  concessions  ?  Are  not  the  attributes  of  the  Almighty  partly 
attributed  to  a  wafer,  and  partly  wreathed  around  the  temples  of  a 
fallible  sinner  ?  If  ever  the  light  of  heaven  and  the  darkness  of  hell 
were  made  to  mingle  together  —  if  ever  fire  from  above  and  fire  from 
beneath  burned  on  the  same  altar  —  if  ever  God  and  man  were 
made,  in  creeds  and  canons,  to  exchange  places,  it  is  in  the  church 
of  Rome  ;  and  this  other  feature  seals  her  identity  with  ancient 
Babylon. 

Again.  A  striking  feature  in  the  character  of  ancient  Babylon 
was  her  persecuting  and  intolerant  disposition.  The  Greeks  and 
Romans  always  allowed  every  man  to  worship  as  he  liked  ;  but  the 
Babylonians  made  the  decree,  "  that  whosoever  would  not  fall  down 
and  worship  the  golden  image  which  Nebuchadnezzar  the  king  had  set 
up,  should  be  cast  into  the  midst  of  the  burning  fiery  furnace."  Now 
this  is  just  the  very  character  of  popery ;  —  she  makes  a  corruptible 


ERRORS  OF  THE  CHURCH  OP  ROME.  356 

■wafer  her  god ;  she  elevates  the  host,  and  whosoever  will  not  fall 
down  and  worship  the  idol  which  Rome  has  set  up,  for  him  there  is 
the  hlazing  faggot,  or  the  cell  of  the  barbarous  inquisition.  To  know 
this  you  have  not  to  go  far.  The  blood  of  martyrs  is  not  yet  dry  on 
the  streets  and  market-places  of  London ;  and  the  wild  grey  moors  of 
our  native  Scotland  have  been  drenched  by  the  tears  and  life-blood 
of  those  who  preferred  death  to  idolatry,  and  the  vexing  of  the  Spirit 
of  God. 

Again.  Babylon  was  long  the  prison-house  of  the  people  of  God. 
For  seventy  long  years  was  Jerusalem  seen  on  the  tablets  of  memory 
only,  and  the  tears  of  Zion's  children  were  shed  on  the  waters  of 
Babel,  and  their  reft  harps  hung  on  the  weepmg  willows  ;  and  in  like 
manner  for  centuries  did  our  fathers  mourn  amid  the  polluted  waters 
of  modern  Rome,  and  even  now  are  there  a  few  in  the  midst  of  her 
to  whom  we  address  the  echo  of  Jehovah's  voice,  "  Come  out  of  her, 
my  people."  Thus  we  see  that  ancient  Babylon  and  modern  popery 
are  identified  in  their  character,  in  their  history,  aye,  and  in  their  fell 
and  dread  doom  of  desolation  and  dismay.  You  will,  therefore,  have 
a  key  to  unlock  many  predictions  of  the  prophets,  which  otherwise 
would  appear  inexplicable.  We  now  direct  your  attention  to  the  grand 
reason  which  the  Spirit  of  God  assigns  for  setting  ourselves  in  array 
against  Babylon,  namely,  "  She  has  sinned  against  the  Lord."  She 
has  sinned,  first,  against  the  institutions  of  God  ;  secondly/,  agsanst  the 
character  of  God ;  and  thirdl>/,  against  the  functions  of  God. 

1st.  She  has  sinned  against  the  institutions  of  God.  Under  this 
head  we  would  comprehend  the  Word  of  God,  which  he  instituted  as 
a  light  to  our  feet  and  a  lamp  to  our  path.  This  blessed  book  God 
wrote  not  with  ink,  but  with  the  blood  of  his  Son,  and  inspired  with 
his  Holy  Spirit.  This  he  gave  as,  next  to  his  Son,  the  best  and 
brightest  boon  he  had  to  bestow ;  and  this  book  he  has  caused  to  be 
bequeathed  by  the  grave  of  the  martyred  father,  to  the  bosom  of  the 
obedient  son  ;  and  this  book  popery  has  locked  up  in  a  tongue  unknown 
to  the  mass  of  the  people,  or  allowed  it  to  be  read  only  by  priestly 
license.  "  For,"  says  the  Council  of  Trent,  "  if  Holy  Bibles  are  dis- 
tributed without  discrimination,  in  the  vulgar  tongue,  more  harm  than 
good  will  arise ; "  nay,  "  the  regular  clergy  may  not  read  the  Bible 
without  permission  of  their  prelates  !  "  We  do  think  that  this  apo&- 
tacy  has  herein  been  guilty  of  the  sin  against  the  H0I3'  Ghost ;  and 
we  are  borne  out  in  this  awful  charge  by  the  fact,  that  to  Babylon  no 
overture  of  peace,  no  promise  of  mercy  is  sent  in  the  Scriptures,  but 
threatenings  and  destinies  of  blackness  and  wrath  for  ever  and  ever. 
Adam  defaced  and  marred  the  pages  of  the  book  of  creation,  which 


356  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

beamed  forth  the  glorj,  and  the  majesty,  and  the  goodness  of  the 
Almighty  ;  but  popery  has  mangled  and  marred  the  pages  of  inspiror 
tion,  which  do  contain  the  brightness  of  the  glory  of  Jesus.  Adam 
sinned  against  a  creation  God,  but  popery  has  sinned  against  a  revela- 
tion God.  From  pilgrims  and  voyagers  to  eternity,  she  has  filched 
their  chart,  their  compass,  and  their  pole-star,  and  left  them  to  thick 
darkness,  and  dangerous  reefs,  and  ultimate  wreck.  From  soldiers, 
necessarily  so,  she  has  stolen  their  sword,  their  shield,  their  breastplate, 
and  their  helmet,  and  left  them  utterly  defenceless.  Oh !  is  there 
not  powerful  reason  in  this  for  putting  themselves  in  array  against 
Babylon  ? 

She  has  also  desecrated  the  Sabbaths  of  the  Most  High.  She  has 
appointed  so  many  holidays  (in  Spain  there  are  nearly  150,)  that  the 
Sabbath  is  come  to  be  regarded  as  a  very  ordinary  institu.tion  indeed ; 
even  priests  and  cardinals  have  declared  that  it  is  not  by  half  so  sinful 
to  follow  our  own  ways  and  works  on  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord,  as  it  is 
to  neglect  the  observance  of  the  holidays  of  the  church.  And  actual 
fact  is  demonstrative  of  the  tendency  and  the  spirit  of  the  system,  for 
in  Portugal,  Spain,  France,  and  Italy,  the  Sabbath-day-theatre  is  shel- 
tered and  fostered  by  the  Vatican,  and  fairs  and  revelries  are  on  that 
day  most  numerous  and  interesting.  Thus  the  Sabbath  —  that  frag- 
ment of  heaven  let  down  upon  the  bosom  of  earth  —  that  brightest 
and  best  interlude  amid  the  weary  weeks  of  our  pilgrimage  —  that 
foretaste  of  the  eternal  rest,  is  trodden  under  the  feet  of  popery,  and 
the  Lord  of  the  Sabbath  thus  sinned  against. 

2ndly.  She  has  siiined  against  the  character  of  Crod.  The  Scrip- 
tures declare  God  to  be  a  Spirit,  and  that  "  they  who  worship  him 
must  worship  him  in  spirit  and  in  truth  ;  "  —  this  popery  has  totally 
overturned.  She  commands  all  worship  to  him  to  be  presented  on  the 
terra  incognita  of  an  unknown  tongue  ;  and  all  praise  and  prayer  to 
be  offered  through  idols  of  silver  and  gold,  made  like  to  corruptible 
man  ;  and  by  these  most  unholy  requirements,  has  she  veiled  the  charac- 
ter of  the  Most  High  in  mysticism  and  in  falsehood  ;  and  the  God  of 
our  Savior  is  to  her  victims  an  unknown  God,  and  the  Father  of  Jesus 
an  unknown  Father ;  and  where  and  what  is  revelation  if  this  be  so  ? 

The  church  of  Rome  has,  by  her  division  of  sin  into  mortal  and 
venial,  encouraged  and  fostered  the  idea,  that  the  Almighty  is  not 
that  infinitely  Holy  Being  which  the  Scriptures  represent  him  to  be, 
and  that  there  cannot  have  been  so  urgent  a  need  for  the  vindication 
of  this  great  attribute  ;  and,  therefore,  that  there  is  not  in  the  atone- 
ment all  that  intense  love,  and  unbending  justice,  and  spotless  sanctity, 
■which  Protestants  magnifv  and  make  mention  of.    She  has,  in  addition 


ERRORS  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME.  357 

to  this,  communicated,  as  much  as  canons  can  communicate,  some  of 
the  glorious  attributes  of  Jehovah  to  a  mortal  and  sinful  man.  She 
has  given  the  names  of  Deity  to  the  bishop  of  Kome ;  and  the  great 
prerogative  of  infallibility  has  she  bestowed  alternately  on  councils 
and  popes.  This  surely  is  blasphemy  of  the  most  expUcit  description  ; 
this  surely  is  a  process  in  direct  opposition  to  that  which  the  gospel 
promotes.  Man  humbled,  and  God  magnified,  is  the  all-pervading 
tissue  of  Christianity.  God  lowered  and  man  installed  in  his  stead,  is 
the  direct  result  of  popery. 

3.  She  has  sinned  against  the  peculiar  functions  of  God  our 
Savior.  She  has  trenched  on  the  Mngly  office  of  the  Lord  Jesus  by 
abrogating  laws  which  he  has  laid  down  for  all  generations,  and  enact- 
ing others  at  issue  with  the  letter  and  the  spirit  of  his  gospel.  She 
has  endeavored  to  dethrone  Christ,  and  enthrone  man  in  his  place.  She 
has  invaded  also  the  pro2)hetic  office  of  Christ.  He  inspired  the  oracles 
of  truth,  and  commanded  their  universal  perusal,  and  presented  him- 
self, their  author,  as  their  surest  interpreter.  But  the  church  of  Rome 
has  withheld  the  whole  Bible  in  some  countries,  where  her  tyranny  is 
at  its  maximum,  and  locked  them  up  in  other  countries,  in  a  tongue 
unknown  to  the  mass  of  the  people  ;  and  in  a  few  countries  where 
Protestant  truth  is  too  powerful,  she  has  permitted  a  restricted  peru- 
sal, or  circulated  a  Bible  enveloped  in  heresy  and  in  perversion  of  its 
truths  to  the  destruction  of  men ;  and  instead  of  allowing  men,  by 
prayer  and  diligent  perusal,  to  judge  for  themselves  whether  these 
things  be  so  or  not,  she  has  commanded  them  upon  the  pain  of  death, 
and  under  the  sanction  of  an  oath,  to  receive  and  believe  the  interpre- 
tations of  Councils  and  Popes,  among  which  there  are  more  contra- 
dictions than  among  all  the  other  sects  of  Christendom.  She  has  also 
sinned  against  the  priestly  office  of  Christ.  She  declares  that  the 
mass  is  a  true  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the  living  and  the  dead.  She 
declares  that  the  merits  of  some  men  are  so  great,  that  they  can  spare 
a  handful  for  the  accommodation  of  those  that  can  purchase  them ; 
and  that  the  merits  of  others  are  such  as  enable  them,  not  only  to 
deserve  the  grace  of  justification,  but  also  to  increase  it ;  and  she 
asserts  that  the  intercession  of  saints  is  extremely  important,  and  their 
prayers  vastly  meritorious.  We  contend  that  these  dogmas  which  I 
have  shown  to  be  held  by  the  church  of  Rome  from  her  own  missals 
and  councils,  which  I  now  hold  in  my  hand,  are  in  direct  opposition  to 
the  most  explicit  declarations  of  the  inspired  record.  "  Christ  was 
once  offered  to  bear  the  sins  of  many."  "  This  man,  after  he  had 
offered  one  sacrifice  for  sins,  for  ever  sat  down  at  the  right  hand  of 
God :  "  and  "  without  sheddmg  blood  there  is  no  remission  of  sins," 


358  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

are  texts  Avhich  completely  overthrow  the  sacrifice  of  the  mass, 
"  There  is  but  one  Mediator  between  God  and  man,  the  man  Christ 
Jesus,"  and  "  all  our  righteousness  is  but  as  filthy  rags,"  are  declara- 
tions which  alone  overthrow  the  merits  of  man  on  the  one  hand,  and 
establish  alone  the  intercession  and  mediation  of  Christ  on  the  other. 
We  might  enter  into  the  records  of  the  Inquisition,  with  all  its  crimes 
committed  against  the  saints,  dear  to  Jehovah  as  the  apple  of  his  eye  ; 
and  we  might  "sum  up  the  history  of  the  doings  of  the  church  which 
have  been  based  on  ignorance,  and  murder,  and  guilt,  but  we  think  we 
have  said  enough  to  prove  that  Babylon  "  has  sinned  against  the  Lord." 
All  these  sins,  you  will  observe,  were  not  the  ebullitions  of  temporary 
excitement,  nor  the  acts  of  individuals  reprobated  by  the  body  to 
which  they  belonged ;  but  the  development  of  the  spirit  and  tendencies 
of  the  church,  and  the  legitimate  prosecution  of  her  most  express 
enactments.  Her  sins  are  interwoven  with  the  system,  inseparable 
from  it,  and  to  be  destroyed  with  the  destruction  of  Babylon  only. 
But  it  may  be  asked,  Avhy  are  we  directed  to  set  ourselves  in  array 
against  Babylon,  while  infidelity  and  atheism,  and  nominal  religion, 
are  equally  fatal  to  the  everlasting  interests  of  men.  The  reason  is 
found  in  the  fact,  that  popery  is  more  congenial  to  the  fallen  nature 
of  man,  and  on  this  account  more  likely  to  captivate  and  ensnare. 
There  is  something  so  desolating  in  the  creed  of  atheism,  and  some- 
thing so  unsatisfactory  in  the  tenets  of  infidelity,  that  few  are  likely 
theoretically  to  embrace  them.  Annihilation  so  jars  with  the  feelings 
of  instinctive  immortality,  that  we  shrink  from  it ;  and  Deism  involves 
us  in  so  many  uncertainties,  that  we  cannot  be  easy  in  its  society  ;  but 
popery  has  a  bland  aspect  and  silken  meshes,  and  a  far  more  seductive 
power  than  any  other  earthly  system.  Popery  finds  a  sphere  for 
every  native  propensity  of  man,  and  withal  it  pledges  a  sure  reward 
in  eternity.  It  gives  full  scope  to  every  depraved  desire,  and  never- 
theless holds  forth  unblushing  promise  of  glory.  It  shows  how  men 
may  live  as  devils,  and  die  as  angels.  It  is  just  the  religion  which 
man  wishes,  but  not  the  religion  which  man  needs.  It  is  the  religion 
of  earth  surrounded  with  the  drapery,  and  colored  with  the  tints  of 
real  Christianity.  It  is  the  coin  of  Caesar  stamped  with  the  image 
and  the  superscription  of  Jesus.  It  is  the  form  of  godliness,  but  the 
power  of  wickedness.  It  is  Satan  as  an  angel  of  light.  Paganism  is 
Satan  going  about  as  a  roaring  lion,  but  popery  is  Satan  creeping  in 
as  a  cunning  serpent.  Popery  is  the  voice  of  Jacob,  but  the  hand  of 
Esau. 

Before  explaining  the  injunction  in  the  text,  we  must  lay  down  the 
nature  of  the  weapons  which  we  are  to  employ.     These  are  not  carnal, 


ERRORS  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ROME.  359 

but  mighty  to  the  pvalling  down  of  the  strongholds  of  sin.  The  sword 
has  been  forged  and  tempered  in  heaven,  and  the  breastplate  is  com- 
posed of  righteousness,  and  the  helmet  of  hope,  and  our  feet  are  shod 
with  the  preparation  of  the  gospel  of  peace.  The  less  we  employ  the 
weapons  of  earth,  the  less  we  enlist  human  passion  and  power  on  our 
side,  the  more  likely  we  are  to  attain  ultimate  success.  Now,  at  all 
events,  the  national  barriers  are  broken  down  —  the  national  and  glo- 
rious ramparts  are  removed,  and  Roman  Catholics  cannot  complain  of 
unfair  play. 

Now,  then,  jjut  yourselves  in  array  against  Babylon.  This  phrase- 
ology does  not  imply  that  we  are  to  stand  inactive,  until  we  are  aroused 
by  the  peal  of  the  trumpet,  and  the  clang  of  conflict  bursting  on  the 
ear.  Inactivity  is  universally  the  precursor  of  defeat.  While  the 
husbandman  slept,  the  enemy  sowed  the  tares  in  the  field  ;  while  Saul 
slept,  his  weapon  was  stolen  from  his  side  ;  while  Samson  slept,  his  hair, 
which  was  his  strength,  was  shorn  away  :  and  if  we  sleep,  our  strength 
and  our  resources  will  be  dissipated.  You  are  now  to  make  an  active 
and  aggressive  movement  on  the  battlements  of  Rome.  You  are  now 
to  open  on  her  heaven's  artillery.  You  are  now  to  urge  forward  that 
ploughshare  of  God's  truth,  which  will  turn  up  her  foundations  to  the 
withering  influences  of  the  winds  and  rains  of  heaven.  If  popery  be 
not  actively  kept  down,  it  will  rapidly  spring  up.  It  is  a  creed  indig- 
enous to  our  nature.  This  array  commanded  in  the  text,  was  formed 
by  the  Waldenses,  when  they  dashed  like  waves  of  the  sea,  against  the 
strongholds  of  popery,  and  retreated  like  the  same,  strown  with  the 
wreck  of  beauty,  and  strength,  and  health.  This  array  Avas  formed 
by  the  continental  reformers  when  they  sent  forth  the  sound  of  the 
glorious  gospel  which  destroyed  the  walls  of  Babylon,  and  razed  some 
of  her  strongest  bulwarks.  This  array  was  also  formed  by  the  English 
reformers,  when,  from  the  flames,  and  from  the  floods,  and  from  the 
teeth  of  the  lion,  and  the  fangs  of  the  serpent,  they  snatched  the  ora- 
cles of  inspiration,  and  opened  their  blessed  pages  in  the  midst  of  open 
day  ;  and  it  will  be  a  revival  of  their  spirit  and  their  times  if  we  can 
prevail  on  the  clergy  of  the  three  establishments  to  preach  as  becomes 
them,  on  the  fourth  day  (Sunday)  of  October,  1835,  which  is  the 
third  centenary  of  the  completion  and  publication  of  the  first  English 
Bible  by  Miles  Covcrdale,  on  the  glorious  privileges  and  blessings  of 
the  Reformation.  This  array  was  likewise  formed  by  the  Scottish 
reformers  when  they  so  thoroughly  rooted  out  the  man  of  sin  from  the 
land,  that  in  1611  there  was  but  one  aged  Roman  Catholic  priest  in 
Scotland,  and  about  ten  families  professing  the  popish  faith.  Ther- 
mopykic,  and  Marathon,  and  Trafalgar,  and  Waterloo,  are  not  meet  to  be 


360  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

mentioned  in  the  same  breath  with  these  glorious  triumphs,  these 
embattled  arrays  of  the  noble  army  of  reformers  ;  and  the  names  of 
Caesar,  and  Themistocles,  and  Alexander,  are  not  worthy  to  appear 
next  to  those  of  Luther,  Calvin,  Ridley,  Knox,  and  others,  of  whom 
the  world  was  not  worthy.  Onward,  my  brethren,  in  the  steps  of  these 
martyred  but  mighty  men,  and  under  the  shelter  of  the  altars  and 
monuments  they  raised,  and  by  the  graves  under  which  their  ashes 
repose  ;  onward  in  the  same  glorious  struggle,  and  put  yourselves  in 
determined  array  against  Babylon. 

"  All  ye  that  bend  the  bow  shoot  at  her,  and  spare  no  arrows." 
This  appears  to  me  to  be  the  Spirit's  call  to  the  ministers  of  the  gospel. 
It  is  on  them  especially  that  the  duty  devolves  of  standing  on  the 
watch-towers  of  Zion,  and  of  taking  thejead  in  all  the  battles  of  the 
Lord.  They  are  to  bear  forward  that  consecrated  banner,  under  the 
inspiration  of  which  are  marshalled  the  saints  of  the  Most  High  ;  and  on 
no  account  to  retreat  till  they  are  called  from  the  arena  of  contest  to  the 
victor's  laurels,  and  the  victor's  rest.  Never  will  the  Christianity  of 
our  Protestant  people  rise  to  its  spring-tide  strength  while  the  Christi« 
anity  of  our  Protestant  priests  continues  so  low  and  so  superficial. 
Let  us,  then,  "  spare  no  arrows  ! "  Let  us  use  all  legitimate  weapons. 
These  arrows  are  mentioned  in  Psalm  xlv.  5,  "  Thine  arrows  are  sharp 
in  the  hearts  of  the  king's  enemies  !  "  Some  of  these  are  feathered 
with  love,  and  some  with  wrath  ;  some  are  the  terrors  of  the  Lord,  and 
others  are  the  mercies  of  the  Lord.  We  are  to  take  one  and  all  from 
the  armory  of  heaven,  and  whether  they  produce  plagues  or  wound  but 
to  save,  we  are  to  shoot  them  against  Babylon.  If  there  be  anything 
likely  to  win  in  the  promises  of  God  —  if  any  thing  likely  to  alkrm  in 
the  terrors  of  God  —  if  any  efficacy  in  prayer  —  if  any  blessing  on 
means  —  we  are  to  employ  all  these  and  spare  none,  for  Babylon's  case 
is  an  almost  desperate  case.  This  instrumentality  we  are  to  employ 
now.  We  do  not  wait  till  the  black  cloud  has  covered  the  whole  canopy 
of  heaven  before  we  run  for  shelter  ;  we  do  not  wait  till  the  plague-spot 
has  covered  the  whole  body  before  we  apply  for  an  antidote  and  a  cure  ; 
we  do  not  Avait  till  danger  has  attained  its  maximum  before  we  labor  to 
arrest  or  to  anticipate  it,  —  why,  then,  should  the  children  of  this  world 
be  wiser  in  their  generation,  than  the  children  of  light  ?  The  present 
crisis  calls  aloud  for  active  and  vigorous  efforts.  Spare  no  arrows  — 
support  every  society  that  bears  upon  popery  at  home,  aid  and  strengthen 
especially  the  British  Reformation  Society,  which,  in  my  opinion,  is  a 
noble  and  scriptural  array  —  a  glorious  phalanx  —  a  mighty  vantage 
ground  from  which  we  may  shoot  the  arrows  of  the  Lord  against 
Babylon.     If  we  come  short  in  our  efforts  now,  we  shall  have  to  lament 


CONVERSION   OF   SINNERS.  ,  361 

our  neglect  -when  Babylon  has  reared  her  blasphemous  head,  diademed 
■with  the  crowns  she  has  filched  from  heaven  and  earth,  and  drunk  with 
the  blood  of  martyrs,  and  rejoicing  in  the  strength  and  maturity  which 
your  apathy  and  liberalized  notions  have  ministered  to  her.  If  it  be 
any  privilege  to  vindicate  the  glory  of  God,  dishonored  and  eclipsed 
by  an  anti- Christian  church  —  if  there  be  any  bowels  of  mercy  toward 
the  souls  that  are  in  jeopardy  —  if  any  patriotism,  Christian  patriotism, 
in  the  bosoms  of  men  —  if  any  obligation  in  the  commandments  of 
God  —  then  put  yourselves  in  array  against  Babylon,  and  the  banner 
over  you  shall  be  love,  and  the  rampart  round  you  shall  be  omnipo- 
tence, and  the  glory  of  God  shall  be  your  reward.  Protestantism 
bearded  in  the  lands  of  its  birth  and  its  blessings  —  truth  blended  with 
fables,  and  popery  threatening  to  subvert  the  Church  of  Ireland,  that 
it  may  have  more  room  to  attack  the  Churches  of  England  and  Scot- 
land, bid  you  note  and  ponder  the  injunction  of  th©  text.  Let  the  fear 
of  darkness  enveloping  these  lands  of  yet  unextinguished  light  —  let 
the  crown,  the  altar,  and  the  constitution  —  let  the  cry  of  the  martyrs 
from  beneath  the  altar,  "  IIow  long,  0  Lord,  holy  and  true,  dost  thou 
not  judge  and  avenge  our  blood"  —  let  heaven  and  earth,  let  eternity 
and  time,  be  heard,  while  they  cry  with  one  voice,  "  Put  yourselves  in 
array  against  Babylon  round  about ;  all  ye  that  bend  the  bow  shoot  at 
her,  spare  no  arrows  ;  for  she  hath  sinned  against  the  Lord." 


SEEMON  XXX. 

HUMAN   AGENCY  IN   THE   CONVERSION   OF   SINNERS. 
BY  REV.  ROBERT  YOUNG. 


•  Let  him  know,  that  he  which  convcrteth  the  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  way,  sliall  save 
a  soul  from  death,  and  shall  hide  a  multitude  of  sins."  — James  v.  20. 

There  is  no  doctrine  more  prominently  stated  in  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, or  more  strikingly  exemplified  in  the  experience  of  men,  than 
that  of  human  depravity.  Revelation  boldly  asserts,  that  "  all  have 
sinned  ;  "  and  history,  with  its  ten  thousand  tongues,  substantiates  the 
fact.  Sin  is  an  hereditary  disease,  entailed  upon  aH  the  posterity  of 
the  first  transgressor ;  corrupting  every  faculty  of  the  soul,  and 
spreading  its  polluting  and  deadly  influence  through  the  whole  mass  of 


362  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

human  society.  What  was  said  of  the  Jews  politically,  may  be  said 
of  the  world  spiritually:  "  The  whole  head  is  sick,  and  the  whole  heart 
is  faint."  Hence  appears  the  necessity  of  conversion.  Men  are 
guilty,  and  therefore  exposed  to  the  penalties  of  a  violated  law  ;  unholy, 
and  therefore  totally  unfit  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;  and  without 
conversion  must  consequently  perish.  Thank  God !  they  may  be  con- 
verted ;  for  the  atonement  of  Christ,  the  promises  of  the  gospel,  and 
the  influences  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  bear  their  united  testimony  to  this 
exhilarating  truth.  And  to  induce  those  who  are  happily  converted,  to 
labor  for  the  conversion  of  others,  the  apostle  says,  "Let  him  know" 
—  yes,  let  him  know,  for  the  direction  of  his  talents,  and  the  encour- 
agement of  his  heart  —  "  that  he  which  converteth  the  sinner  from  the 
error  of  his  way,  shall  save  a  soul  from  death,  and  hide  a  multitude  of 
sins." 

Having  this  evening  to  plead  the  cause  of  The  London  Female 
Mission,  the  text  selected  for  the  occasion  may  be  considered  — 

I.  As  describing  the  object  wJiich  this  mission  contemjdates  ; 

II.  As  investing  its  agents  with  authority  for  acting  ;  and  — 

III.  As  furnishing  the  most  powerful  motives  to  persevering  zeal  in 
its  opterations. 

I.  The  text  may  be  considered  as  describing  the  object  which 
THE  London  Female  Mission  contemplates.  Its  object  is  not 
merely  to  protect,  but  to  save ;  not  only  to  reclaim  from  one  vice,  but 
from  every  vice,  by  "  converting  sinners  from  the  error  of  their  ways." 

The  parties  for  whose  benefit  this  mission  has  been  established,  are 
found  in  the  ways  of  error ;  for  they  "  have  forsaken  the  Guide  of 
their  youth,  and  forgotten  the  covenant  of  tlieir  God."  Does  darkness 
associate  itself  with  error  ?  They  are  as  degenerate  and  deeply  fallen 
creatures,  said  to  "  grope  in  darkness  ;  "  to  have  their  eyes  "  blinded  by 
the  god  of  this  world  ; "  and  to  be  thus  rendered  incapable  of  knowing 
themselves,  and  of  "  beholding  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus 
Christ."  Does  impurity  associate  itself  with  error  ?  They  are  "  alto- 
gether as  an  unclean  thing  ;  "  and  "  the  imaginations  of  their  hearts 
are  only  evil,  and  that  continually."  Does  misery  associate  itself  with 
error  ?  "  Destruction  and  misery  are  in  all  their  ways  ;  the  way  of 
peace  they  know  not ;  "  and  in  a  state  of  fearful  disquietude  "  they  go 
about,  seeking  rest,  but  find  none."  Does  danger  associate  itself  with 
error  ?  The  curse  of  a  violated  law,  like  the  avenger  of  blood,  is 
pursuing  them  ;  and  we  are  assured,  that  "  their  feet  go  down  to  death, 
and  their  steps  take  hold  on  hell."  Now,  to  "  convert  these  sinners 
from  the  error  of  their  ways,"  is  to  bring  them  from  darkness  to  light; 


CONVERSION   OF   SINNERS.  363 

from  impurity  to  holiness  ;  from  misery  to  happiness  ;  from  danger  to 
safety  ;  and  in  fact  from  Satan  to  God. 

The  change  implied  in  the  conversion  of  sinners  is  universal.  There 
is  a  change  in  their  understanding  ;  for  "  God  who  commandeth  hght 
to  shine  out  of  darkness,  shineth  into  their  hearts,"  "  opening  the  eyes 
of  their  understanding  "  to  know  themselves,  and  the  "  things  which 
arc  freely  given  to  them  of  God."  There  is  a  change  in  their  will; 
for  being  subdued  by  a  Divine  power,  they  no  longer  resist  the  author- 
ity of  their  jNIaker,  but  humbly  acquiesce  in  the  plan  of  saving  grace, 
and  the  various  dispensations  of  Divine  providence.  There  is  a  change 
in  their  affections  ;  for  they  no  longer  wander  after  forbidden  objects, 
or  "  cleave  to  the  dust  of  the  earth,"  but  are  "set  on  things  above, 
where  Christ  sitteth  at  the  right  hand  of  God."  There  is  a  change  in 
their  deportment;  for  having  "put  off  concerning  the  former  conversa- 
tion, the  old  man  which  is  corrupt,  according  to  the  deceitful  lust,"  and 
having  "  put  on  the  new  man,  which  after  God  is  created  in  righteous- 
ness and  true  holiness,"  they  "  walk  righteously  and  godly  and  soberly 
in  the  present  evil  world."  There  is  a  change  in  their  condition. 
Formerly  they  were  "  slaves  to  divers  lusts  and  pleasure."  but  are  now 
free  from  the  "  bondage  of  sin  and  death  ;  "  they  were  the  "  enemies 
of  God  by  reason  of  wicked  works,"  but  now  are  they  his  friends, 
and  delight  to  do  whatever  he  commands  them ;  they  "  were  the 
children  of  wrath  even  as  others,"  but  now  are  they  "  the  children 
of  God  by  faith  in  Christ  Jesus,"  and  have  "  received  the  Spirit  of 
adoption,  whereby  they  cry  Abba  Father."  Such  is  the  nature  of 
scriptural  conversion.  It  is  not  a  partial  change,  but  extends  to  every 
propensity  and  feeling  of  fallen  nature.  Sinners  are  not  merely 
mended,  but  "  created  anew  in  Christ  Jesus."  They  have  as  penitents 
approached  the  mercy-seat,  and  in  the  exercise  of  simple  faith ,»obtained 
the  forgiveness  of  their  sins  and  an  inheritance  amongst  them  that  are 
sanctified ;  and  thus  "  old  things  have  passed  away,  and  all  things 
become  new." 

Now  to  accomplish  this  great  work  as  extensively  as  possible,  is  the 
object  contemplated  by  The  London  Female  Mission.  If  the  class  of 
persons  this  mission  seeks  to  benefit,  be  not  sincerely  converted  to 
God,  no  scriptural  hope  can  be  entertained  of  their  permanent  recovery. 
To  attempt  the  reformation  of  such  characters  independently  of  con- 
version, would  in  general,  if  not  always,  be  found  to  be  as  unavaihng 
as  the  putting  "  new  cloth  into  an  old  garment ;"  for  such  efforts  would 
in  all  probability  be  so  perverted  by  them,  as  to  make  the  moral  rent 
worse.  You  cannot  give  them  any  principle  sufficiently  powerful  to 
secure  their  permanent  reformation,  whilst  their  old  offending  nature 


364  THE  ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

remains  ;  for  how  can  jou  expect  the  fruit  to  be  good,  while  the  tree 
is  corrupt  ?  the  streams  to  be  pure,  while  the  fountain  remains  polluted  ? 
The  experiment  of  producing  a  good  life,  in  connection  with  an  evil 
heart  of  unbelief,  has  been  repeatedly  tried,  but  always  failed.  In  a 
large  provincial  town  in  the  North,  there  is  an  extensive  penitentiary, 
very  liberally  supported  ;  but  as  it  does  not  make  conversion  to  God, 
by  faith  in  Christ  Jesus,  the  foundation  of  the  permanent  recovery  of 
its  numerous  inmates,  I  regret  to  say,  that  many  of  them  after  having 
filled  up  their  probation,  and  left  the  institution,  are  unable  to  resist 
temptations  to  vice,  and  in  a  short  time  return  to  their  former  ways, 
and  in  some  instances  become  more  vile  than  before.  Another  insti- 
tution was  established,  of  which  I  had  the  honor  to  be  secretary  ;  and 
as  it  was  established  on  the  principle  that  conversion  to  God  is  indis- 
pensable to  the  permanent  rescue  of  unfortunate  females,  we  kept  none 
under  its  care  who  did  not  give  evidence  of  a  sincere  desire,  not  only 
to  forsake  07ie  sin,  but  every  sin,  and  to  save  their  souls  ;  and  such  was 
its  management,  as  to  render  it  almost  impossible  for  any  but  the  truly 
penitent  to  remain  long  under  its  control.  During  the. first  year  of  the 
society's  labors,  the  Divine  blessing  was  so  richly  communicated,  that 
seventy  females  were  rescued  from  the  grasp  of  the  destroyer ;  two  of 
whom  died  happy  in  the  Lord,  eighteen  were  restored  to  their  friends, 
and  thirty-two  placed  in  situations  where  in  general  they  gave  satis- 
faction, and  all  of  them  afforded  encouraging  evidence  of  true  conversion. 
We  never  thought  of  sending  a  female  from  under  the  society's  care, 
either  to  her  relations  or  to  a  situation,  without  having  reason  to  believe 
that  she  had  experienced  a  saving  change  ;  and  although  in  some  cases 
we  were  deceived,  yet  generally  speaking  we  had  cause  to  rejoice  over 
those  who  professed  to  obtain  salvation.  See,  therefore,  my  dear 
friends,  l^at  you  never  lose  sight  of  this  principle  in  the  operations  of 
the  London  Female  Mission ;  but  labor  to  bring  the  objects  of  your 
charity  to  a  saving  acquaintance  with  your  Redeemer.  Let  not  the 
character  of  their  crimes,  or  the  depth  of  their  depravity,  discourage 
you  ;  for  Christ  is  "  mighty  to  save."  Do  you  say  that  their  "  sins  are 
as  scarlet  ?  "  God  says,  "  They  shall  be  as  white  as  snow."  Do  you 
say  that  "  they  are  red  like  crimson  ?  "  God  says,  "  They  shall  be  as 
wool."  Do  you  say  that  the  objects  of  your  charity  are  "  five  hundred 
pence  debtors  ?  "  God  says  he  will  "  frankly  forgive  them  all."  Nor 
should  you  forget,  that  he  who  hath  said  "  Publicans  and  harlots  shall 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  graciously  beheld,  in  the  days  of 
his  humiliation  — 

"  A  harlot  in  distress ; 


Dried  up  her  tears,  her  pardon  seal'd, 
And  bade  her  go  in  peace." 


CONVERSION   OF   SINNERS.  365 

It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  the  first  convert  in  the  great  revival  of 
religion  which  took  place  in  America,  under  the  ministry  of  President 
Edwards  and  his  contemporaries,  was  an  unfortunate  female  ;  and  her 
conversion  was  made  a  blessing  to  many  thousands.  Mr.  Edwards 
says  —  "  God  made  it  the  greatest  occasion  of  awakening  to  others, 
of  anything  that  ever  came  to  pass  in  the  town.  The  news  of  it 
seemed  almost  like  a  flash  of  lightning  upon  the  hearts  of  young 
people,  and  upon  many  others."  And  the  result  of  the  revival  so 
commenced,  was  estimated  to  be  the  conversion  of  thirty  thousa"nd 
souls. 

II.  The  text  may  be  considered  as  investing  the  agents  of 
THE  London  Female  Mission  "with  authority  for  acting. 

It  assumes  that  it  is  the  duty  of  Christians  to  labor  according  to 
their  respective  abilities,  for  the  conversion  of  sinners  ;  not  merely 
ministers,  but  private  members.  For  it  was  not  to  ministers,  but  the 
church  generally,  that  the  apostle  addressed  himself  in  the  words  before 
us  ;  and  thus  recognised  the  pi-inciple  of  lay-agency  in  the  conversion 
of  sinners,  as  being  consistent  with  apostolic  order.  Here,  then,  is 
your  authority  for  acting ;  and  which  no  advocate  of  apostolic  succes- 
sion, is  able  to  take  from  you. 

This  view  of  the  subject  is  supported  by  other  considerations,  upou 
which  we  shall  now  enter. 

1.  Your  duty  to  labor  for  the  conversion  of  souls,  may  be  argued 
from  the  method  of  Jehovah's  government. 

It  appears  to  be  a  principle  in  the  Divine  administration,  for  God  to 
accomplish  what  man  cannot  accomplish  ;  but  not  to  perform  what  man 
can  perform.  See  this  principle  exemplified  in  nature.  God  does  not 
cultivate  the  soil,  or  deposit  the  seed  therein,  because  man  can  do  that ; 
but  he  gives  the  fruit  of  the  earth  in  all  its  variety  and  richness,  and 
thus  effects  what  man  cannot  effect.  Sec  this  exemplified  in  the  mira- 
cles of  our  Lord.  Take  his  raising  Lazarus  for  an  example.  When 
he  had  come  to  the  tomb  of  his  servant,  he  directed  his  attendants  to 
roll  away  the  stone  ;  and  when  he  had  restored  his  friend  to  life,  he 
farther  instructed  them  to  "  loose  him  and  let  him  go."  Now  he  that 
raised  Lazarus  from  the  dead,  could  have  easily  rolled  away  the  stone 
and  loosed  his  servant  from  his  bands  ;  but  these  were  things  which  man 
could  do  ;  and  our  Lord,  on  that  deeply  interesting  occasion,  absolutely 
performed  nothing  but  what  man  could  not  perform.  Now  this  appears 
to  be  the  principle  upon  whicli  he  acts  in  the  conversion  of  sinners. 
It  is  true,  that  you  cannot  of  yourselves  do  any  good  thing,  much  less 
convert  sinners  from  the  error  of  their  ways,  as  that  is  a  Divine  work  ; 
yet  you  can  humbly,  and  in  dependence  upon  spiritual  aid,  employ  the 


366  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

means  avHcIi  God  has  appointed  for  that  important  end.  And  we 
maintain,  that  you  have  no  more  authority  to  expect  that  God  will 
convert  sinners  whilst  the  use  of  those  means  is  neglected,  than  the 
husbandman  has  authority  to  expect  a  plentiful  harvest  whilst  he 
neglects  to  cultivate  his  land  and  sow  his  seed. 

The  truth  of  God,  presented  to  the  mind,  is  the  great  instrument  of 
conversion  ;  and  it  does  not  appear  that  a  sinner  can  be  converted  and 
saved  independently  of  the  truth  of  God.  For  instance  :  are  men  born 
again  ?  It  is  "  not  of  corruptible  seed,  but  of  incorruptible  ;  even  the 
word  of  the  Lord,  which  liveth  and  abideth  for  ever."  Are  they 
sanctified  ?  It  is  "  through  the  truth."  Are  they  "  made  clean  ?  " 
It  is  "  through  the  words  which  Christ  speaks  unto  them."  Hence  the 
absolute  necessity  of  teaching,  and  consequently  of  human  agency  in 
the  conversion  of  sinners.  It  is  undoubtedly  your  duty,  as  Christians, 
to  make  known,  in  some  way,  and  to  the  extent  of  which  you  are  capa- 
ble, the  vital  doctrines  of  the  gospel  to  those  persons  whose  conversion 
you  desire  ;  and  thus  to  furnish  that  divinely  appointed  instrument,  by 
which  the  Holy  Ghost  awakens,  converts  and  saves.  For  this  purpose 
you  are  directed  to  teach  the  words  of  the  law  "  diligently  unto  your 
children ;  and  to  talk  of  them  when  you  sit  in  the  house  and  when  you 
walk  by  the  way,  when  you  lie  down  and  when  you  rise  up."  You  are 
"  in  any  wise  to  rebuke  your  neighbor,  and  not  suffer  sin  upon  your 
brother  ;  "  to  "  do  and  teach  the  commandments  of  God ;  "  to  "  say 
every  man  to  his  neighbor.  Know  ye  the  Lord  ;  "  and,  in  fact,  to  be 
"  teachers  of  all  good  things."  Nor  is  this  all ;  for  as  intercessory 
prayer  offered  to  God,  as  well  as  religious  truth  presented  to  the  mind 
of  man,  is  an  instrument  of  conversion,  it  becomes  your  duty  also  to 
pray  for  the  conversion  of  sinners.  "  The  effectual  fervent  prayer  of 
a  righteous  man  availeth  much  ; "  and  it  is  clearly  intimated  in  the 
context,  that  it  may  not  only  "  save  the  sick,"  but  avail  in  the  "  con- 
version of  a  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  ways." 

2.  Your  duty  to  labor  for  the  conversion  of  sinners,  may  be  argued 
from  the  spirit  and  tendency  of  experimental  Christianity.  It  not  only 
qualifies  its  recipients  for  this  important  work,  by  giving  them  knowl- 
edge, love,  and  meekness,  but  inspires  them  with  a  sincere  and  ardent 
desire  to  be  so  employed.  For  the  truth  of  this,  we  might  refer  you 
to  Andrew,  who,  on  finding  the  Messiah,  hastened  home  to  bring  his 
brother  Simon.  We  might  refer  you  to  Saul  of  Tarsus,  who,  on  obtain- 
ing salvation,  immediately  went  forth  to  recommend  it  to  his  countrymen. 
We  might  refer  you  to  the  martj'rs,  and  confessors,  whose  hearts  so 
ardently  desii-ed  the  conversion  of  their  persecutors,  that  they  were 
manifestly  more  concerned  for  that  than  their  own  safety.     We  might 


CONVERSION   OF   SINNERS.  367 

refer  you  to  the  truly  pious,  in  every  age  of  the  world,  who  have  wept 
and  prayed  and  labored  in  various  ways  to  effect  the  conversion  of 
sinners.     But  we  need  not  go  further  than  this  assembly  for  witnesses 
of  this  truth  ;  each  Christian  present  being  such  a  witness.    When  jou 
first  felt  the  love  of  God  shed  abroad  in  your  hearts  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
given  unto  you,  how  did  you  feel  respectmg  impenitent  sinners  ?     Did 
you   not   earnestly  desire  their  conversion  ?     You  did ;  and  if  you 
obeyed  the  impulse  of  your  new  nature,  you  strove  to  effect  that  con- 
version.    I  appeal  to  your  consciences  for  the  truth  of  this.     Nor  was 
this   feeling  intended   to  resemble  the  mountain   torrent,  that  soon 
exhausts  itself ;  but  the  steady  flowing  stream,  deepening  and  widening 
as  it  advances  in  its  course.     If  jou  have  lost  this  feeling,  you  cannot 
have  retained  your  religion,  it  being  inseparably  connected  therewith  ; 
for  "  he  that  loveth  God  must  love  his  brother  also,"  and  cannot  but 
desire  and  labor  for  his  conversion.     If  such,  therefore,  be  the  ten- 
dency of  religion  —  if  it  excite  an  ardent  desire  for  the  conversion  of 
sinners,  as  well  as  invest  you  with  moral  capabilities  for  this  important 
work  —  what  is  the  fair  and  legitimate  conclusion  forced  upon  us,  but 
that  3-0U  ought  to  be  thus  employed  ?   If  you  are  not,  you  will  certainly 
prove  unfaithful  to  your  principles,  hide  your  talent  in  the  earth,  resist 
the  Spirit's  influence,  and  thereby  greatly  endanger  your  own  safety. 
3.  Your  duty  to  labor  for  the  conversion  of  sinners,  may  be  argued 
from  tJie  Idstory  of  the  church.     Church  history  records  the  conversion 
of  myriads  of  sinners  —  sinners  of  every  character,  and  age,  and 
nation,  and  grade  in  society  —  and  places  them  before  us  as  the  tro- 
phies of  redeeming  grace.     And  do  you  ask,  by  what  agency  so  many 
sinners  have  been  converted  from  the  error  of  their  ways  ?     Perhaps 
in  some  cases  God  may  have  effected  the  blessed  work  independently 
of  human  agency,  although  that  is  by  no  means  evident ;  but  it  is  very 
clear  that  his  usual,  if  not  liis  invariahle  course,  has  been  to  employ 
that  agency.     If  ever  there  had  been  a  period  when  human  agency 
vras  unnecessary,  it  must  surely  have  been  on  the  day  of  Pentecost, 
when  the  Holy  Ghost  descended  upon  the  disciples  ;  but  even  then,  it 
was  not  dispensed  with  in  the  conversion  of  the  three  thousand  souls, 
who,  on  that  memorable  occasion,  were  added  to  the  Lord.     They  had 
mockingly  witnessed  the  effects  of  the  Spirit's  manifestation,  and  were 
not  "  pricked  in  their  hearts  "  until  they  heard  the  Gospel  message 
from  the  lips  of  Peter.    Then,  and  not  till  then,  did  they  discover  their 
sin  and  danger,  and  exclaim,  "  Men  and  brethren,  what  shall  we  do  ?" 
Nor  can  we  find  a  conversion  to  God  after  that  period,  on  record  in  the 
New  Testament,  in  which  human  agency  of  some   description  was  not 
employed.      Was   the    Ethiopian    eunuch   converted  ?      The   Spirit 


368  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

directed  Philip  to  join  himself  to  his  chariot,  and  to  preach  unto  him 
Jesus,  that  he  might  understand  what  he  was  reading ;  and  the  eunuch 
"  beheved  with  all  his  heart,"  was  baptized,  and  "  went  on  his  way 
rejoicing."  Was  Saul,  of  Tarsus,  converted  ?  Ananias  was  com- 
manded to  go  into  the  street,  which  was  called  "  Straight,"  and  in  the 
house  of  one  Judas,  to  put  his  hands  upon  him,  that  he  might  receive 
his  sight,  and  "  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost."  Was  Cornelius,  and 
his  household,  converted  ?  Peter  was  instructed  in  a  vision  to  go  down 
to  Cesarea  to  tell  them  words  whereby  they  might  be  saved  ;  and  "  while 
he  yet  spake,  the  Holy  Ghost  fell  on  all  them  which  heard  the  word." 
Now  in  each  of  these  cases  of  conversion,  the  Divine  being  had  nearly 
effected  the  glorious  work  himself,  but  did  not  complete  it  without 
human  agency  ;  as  if  to  testify  to  his  church,  throughout  all  genera- 
tions, that  it  is  his  rule  to  bless  man  by  man,  and  to  make  "  the  weak 
things  of  the  world  to  confound  the  things  which  are  mighty." 

If  we  examine  the  annals  of  the  church  from  that  period  to  the  pres- 
ent, we  shall  find  that  families  and  tribes  and  even  nations,  have  been 
converted  by  means  of  human  agency  ;  and  sometimes  by  that,  which 
in  the  estimation  of  the  world  has  been  the  most  weak  and  contemptible. 
Hence  we  are  told,  that  the  king  and  queen  of  the  ancient  Iberia,  a 
province  in  Asia,  were  brought  to  embrace  the  Christian  faith  by  means 
of  a  captive  woman  ;  and  this  event  led  to  the  conversion  of  nearly  all 
their  subjects.  But  we  may  come  nearer  home,  even  to  our  own 
experience  and  observation,  for  evidences  of  the  truth  we  seek  to 
establish.  There  are  in  this  congregation,  I  have  no  doubt,  many 
persons  who  have  been  converted  from  the  error  of  their  ways ;  and 
perhaps  there  is  not  one  here,  in  whose  conversion  human  agency  has 
been  entirely  precluded.  He  who  addresses  you  was  convinced  of  sin, 
and  led  to  the  Savior  for  pardon  and  acceptance,  by  the  humble  but 
fervent  exertions  of  a  lay  preacher.  Like  some  others,  he  "  went  to 
mock,  but  remained  to  pray."  And  if  you  recur  to  the  circumstances 
of  your  conversion,  you  will  probably  find  that  it  was  the  sermon  of 
some  minister,  the  biography  of  some  saint,  the  advice  or  reproof  of 
some  friend,  the  shining  light  of  some  devoted  Christian,  or  the  fervent 
prayer  of  some  sincere  disciple,  which  first  awakened  you  to  a  sense 
of  your  condition,  and  led  you  to  "  flee  for  refuge  to  lay  hold  on  the 
hope  set  before  you."  Or  if,  in  the  first  instance,  you  were  directly 
moved  by  the  Spirit  without  any  apparent  human  agency  being 
employed,  we  venture  to  assert,  that  some  Philip,  Ananias,  or  Peter 
was  called  in  by  your  blessed  Savior,  as  a  subordinate  agent,  as  a 
worker  together  with  him,  in  the  completion  of  your  conversion. 
Indeed  the  whole  history  of  the  Christian  Church  proves,  that  man, 


CONVERSION   OF   SINNERS.  369 

feeble  man,  is  God's  selected  agent  in  the  accomplishment  of  his  gloii- 
ous  purposes  of  grace.  And  this  is  distinctly  and  clearly  assumed,  by 
the  different  religious  and  benevolent  institutions  of  the  day,  which 
concentrate  so  much  human  agency  Avith  the  view  of  enlightening  and 
saving  the  world.  Bible,  Missionary,  Tract  and  Sunday-school  socie- 
ties, all  recognize  and  act  upon  this  principle ;  and  this  is  the  principle 
upon  which  you,  as  the  agents  of  the  London  Female  Mission,  are 
authorized  and  encouraged  to  put  forth  your  most  vigorous  exertions  in 
behalf  of  perishing  thousands,  and  to  endeavor  to  "  save  them  with 
fear,  pulling  them  out  of  the  fire,  hating  even  the  garment  spotted  by 
the  flesh." 

Now,  brethren,  if  these  things  be  so,  if  the  method  of  the  Divine 
Government,  the  spirit  and  tendency  of  religion,  the  history  of  the 
church,  and  the  declarations  of  the  Book  of  God,  prove  that  it  is  jour 
duty  to  exert  your  powers  in  the  conversion  of  sinners  —  how  awfully 
great  is  your  responsibility  !  May  you  feel  it.  Remember  you  cannot 
occupy  a  neutral  position  here  ;  for  "  he  that  gathereth  not  with  me," 
saith  Christ,  "  scattereth  abroad."  If  you  do  not  co-operate  with 
Christ  in  the  great  work  of  saving  souls,  you  do  not  on  that  account 
remain  neutral,  but  place  yourselves,  by  your  very  omission  of  duty, 
in  opposition  to  their  salvation  ;  and  instead  of  converting  sinners  from 
the  error  of  their  ways,  and  saving  souls  from  death,  you  "  destroy 
those  for  whom  Christ  died,  and  the  blood  of  souls  will  be  found  on  the 
skirts  of  your  garments."     "  He  that  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear." 

III.  The  text  may  be  considered  as  furnishing  the  London  Female 
Mission  with  the  most  powerful  motives  to  persevering  zeal  in 
ITS  operations.  "  He  shall  save  a  soul  from  death  and  hide  a  multi- 
tude of  sins." 

1.  "  He  that  converteth  a  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  ways,  shall 
save  a  soul  from  death."  And  who  can  estimate  the  value  of  a  soul  ? 
We  may  form  some  conception  of  its  worth,  if  we  contemplate  its  ori- 
gin, as  proceeding  in  a  peculiar  way  from  God ;  its  caimcity,  as  being 
capable  of  knowing,  serving,  loving,  and  enjoying  its  maker  in  this 
world,  and  in  that  which  is  to  come ;  its  redemjjtion^  as  being  "  redeemed, 
not  with  corruptible  things,  such  as  silver  and  gold,  but  with  the  precious 
blood  of  Christ ;"  and  its  immortality,  as  being  destined  not  only  to 
exist  through  all  succeeding  generations,  but  for  ever  and  for  ever. 
Now  on  the  conversion  of  a  sinner,  such  a  soul  is  saved  from  spiritual 
death.  In  its  unrenewed  state  it  is  said  to  be  "  dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins  ; "  and  very  properly  so,  for  as  natural  death  implies  a  separation 
between  the  body  and  the  soul^  so  spiritual  death  implies  a  separation 
24 


370  THE    ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

between  the  soul  and  its  Maker  ;  but  on  its  conversion  a  resurrection 
takes  place.  He  who  is  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life  approaches,  and 
■with  authority  and  power  exclaims,  "  Come  forth  !  "  —  and  the  soul  at 
once  feels  the  vital  principle,  heaves  with  Divine  animation,  and  thus 
passes  from  death  unto  life.  The  converted  sinner  now  lives  ;  and  it  is 
the  "  life  of  faith  in  the  Son  of  God,  who  hath  loved  him  and  given 
himself  for  him ;  "  and  he  performs  the  various  functions  and  enjoys 
the  inestimable  blessings  of  a  spiritual  existence.  But  on  the  conver- 
sion of  a  sinner,  a  soul  is  saved  from  eternal  death ;  from  blackness  and 
darkness  ;  from  tribulation  and  wrath  ;  from  fire  and  brimstone  ;  from 
the  worm  that  dieth  not ;  from  weeping  and  wailing,  and  from  gnashing 
of  teeth.  Such  are  some  of  the  Scripture  characteristics  of  death  — 
eternal  death  —  death  which  never  dies,  and  to  which  every  uncon- 
verted sinner  is  exposed.  If  on  the  death  of  a  soul,  both  man  and 
beast  should  be  clothed  with  sackcloth  —  if  all  creatures  capable  of 
emotion,  should  join  in  the  loud  and  doleful  lamentation  —  if  every 
tree  of  the  forest  and  herb  of  the  field  should  immediately  droop  like 
the  weeping  willow  —  if  every  dew  drop  should  be  mingled  with  blood, 
to  indicate  the  agony  of  maternal  nature,  and  if  the  sun  should  put 
on  his  funeral  robes  as  the  first  mourner  on  the  occasion  —  the  expres- 
sion of  sorrow  would  indeed  be  affecting,  but  it  would  fall  far  short  of 
giving  us  any  adequate  conception  of  the  misery  occasioned  by  the  loss 
of  a  soul.  And  will  you  not  endeavor  to  save  a  soul  from  death  ? 
Brethren,  if  you  saw  your  neighbor's  house  on  fire,  would  you  not 
hasten  to  quench  the  flame  ?  If  you  saw  a  fellow-creature  drowning, 
would  you  not  plunge  into  the  river  to  his  rescue,  or  furnish  him  with 
some  means  of  escape  ?  Or  if  you  saw  numbers  in  the  city  dying  of 
the  plague,  and  you  possessed  an  infallible  remedy,  would  you  not 
apply  it  Avithout  delay,  that  the  plague  might  be  stayed  ?  But  what  is 
the  saving  of  burning  houses,  drowning  men,  or  dying  multitudes, 
compared  with  the  saving  of  one  soul  from  death  ?  He  who  saves  a 
soul  from  death,  performs  a  greater  work  than  he  who  saves  a  land 
from  famine,  a  city  from  the  plague,  and  a  country  from  an  invading 
foe.  Then,  bring  all  your  capabilities  to  bear  upon  this  important  and 
momentous  work.  Have  you  talents  at  your  command  ?  in  this  work 
let  them  be  employed.  Have  you  influence  in  the  world  ?  in  this  work 
let  it  be  exerted.  Have  you  zeal  in  your  hearts  ?  in  this  work  let  it 
ardently  burn.  Have  you  devotion  in  your  spirits  ?  in  this  work  let  it 
ascend  to  the  throne  of  heaven.  Have  you  wealth  at  your  disposal  ? 
hx  this  work  let  it  be  liberally  expended.  INIen  !  Brethren  !  Patriots  ! 
Christians  !  By  what  inspiring  name  shall  I  call  you  ?  Your  duty  is 
plain ;  and  for  its  performance,  humanity  is  entreating,  and  Christian- 


CONVERSION  OF  SINNERS.  371 

ity  exhorting,  importuning,  and  commanding.  The  case  is  urgent ; 
for  sinners  are  perishing  whilst  I  am  speaking  —  perishing  by  thou- 
sands —  perishing  within  the  reach  of  help  —  perishing  in  your  city, 
and  at  your  doors  !  Every  man  therefore  to  his  work  ;  and  what  you 
do,  do  quickly,  do  it  with  your  might ;  do  it  in  spite  of  all  opposition, 
and  upon  your  heads  shall  abundantly  descend  the  blessings  of  them 
that  are  ready  to  perish. 

As  the  agents  are  supporters  of  the  London  Female  Mission,  you 
have  in  this  a  most  powerful  motive  to  zeal  and  perseverance  in  your 
important  and  deeply  interesting  operations. 

2.  "  He  that  converteth  a  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  ways,  shall " 
also  "  hide  a  multitude  of  sins^  Every  sinner  is  guilty  of  a  multi- 
tude of  sins  —  sins  of  omission,  and  sins  of  commission  —  sins  of  the 
heart,  sins  of  the  lips,  sins  of  the  life  ;  but  when  conversion  takes 
place,  all  those  sins  are  covered  by  the  great  propitiatory  sacrifice  — 
are  blotted  out  by  the  precious  blood  of  Christ,  and  Divine  justice  sees 
them  no  more.  But  the  word  rendered  "  hide,"  is  susceptible  of 
another  meaning,  and  I  am  much  inclined  to  believe  that  its  meaning 
in  the  text  is  to  withhold  from  sight,  rather  than  to  withdraio  from 
sight,  or  to  hide  hy  prevention,  rather  than  by  covering.  If  this  inter- 
pretation be  adopted,  the  text  will  certainly  read  more  naturally,  "  He 
shall  save  a  soul  from  death,  and  prevent  a  multitude  of  sins."  One 
sinner,  we  are  told,  destroys  much  good ;  and  this  may  especially  be 
said  of  one  of  those  unhappy  females,  whose  salvation  this  society 
seeks  to  accomplish  ;  but  when  converted,  a  multitude  of  sins  are  pre- 
vented ;  and  not  only  sins  which  she  would  have  committed,  but  sins 
in  others,  who  might  have  been  influenced  by  her  example,  or  been  so 
unfortunate  as  to  fall  into  her  snares.  Had  any  person  succeeded  in 
converting  Voltaire,  Hume,  Paine,  Robert  Owen,  or  even  certain 
degraded  females,  whose  "  paths  incline  unto  death,"  and  "  whose 
guests  are  in  the  depths  of  hell,"  what  infidelity,  what  blasphemy, 
what  intemperance,  what  lasciviousness,  what  murders,  and  other  forms 
of  vice,  ruining  many  famihes,  breaking  many  hearts,  and  destroying:; 
many  souls,  would  have  been  prevented  !  And  on  the  other  hand, 
what  multitudes  of  sins  have  been  prevented  by  the  agents,  who  led 
Luther,  and  Wesley,  and  Whitefield,  and  other  successful  ministers,  to 
the  foot  of  the  cross,  and  the  enjoyment  of  salvation  !  —  sins,  which 
might  have  brought  the  fearful  judgments  of  heaven  upon  families, 
communities,  and  nations  !  Brethren,  if  you  wish  to  benefit  not  only 
the  present  generation,  but  generations  yet  unborn,  and  to  give  a 
moral  impulse  to  the  world  that  shall  live  when  you  are  dead,  labor  t<j 
convert  a  sinner.     There  was  a  woman  in  the  attire  of  a  harlot,  walk- 


37!2  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

ing  in  yonder  street,  alluring  those  wlio  were  void  of  understanding, 
and  "  casting  down  many  wounded ;  yea,  many  strong  men  were  slain 
by  her ;  for  her  house  was  the  way  to  hell,  going  down  to  the  cham- 
bers of  death ;  "  but  by  the  blessing  of  God  upon  the  exertions  of  the 
London  Female  Mission,  she  was  awakened  and  converted.  The  event 
excited  but  little  interest  in  this  degenerate  world  ;  there  was  no  ring- 
ing of  bells,  no  flourishing  of  trumpets,  no  firing  of  cannon,  no  illumin- 
ation of  the  city,  no  display  of  fire  works  ;  nor  was  any  medal  struck 
to  commemorate  the  glorious  occurrence.  And  yet,  it  excited  a  deeper 
interest  among  the  angelic  host,  than  all  the  exploits  of  bravery,  that 
mark  the  battle  field,  and  throw  whole  nations  into  ecstacies  of  joy ; 
for  while  angels  pass  by  all  those  exploits  without  ever  once  stopping 
to  strike  their  lyre,  they  rapturously  sung  the  heavenly  chorus,  and 
throughout  all  their  shining  ranks  rejoiced  over  that  one  repenting 
sinner.  In  the  conversion  of  that  unhappy  female,  you  gave  a  moral 
impulse  to  society,  which  in  a  few  years  may  be  felt  at  the  very  antip- 
odes, and  at  last  appear  in  tens  of  thousands  of  glorified  spirits  at  the 
right  hand  of  God.  What  a  motive  is  this  for  perseverance  and 
energy  in  the  operations  of  the  London  Female  Mission ! 

In  conclusion,  we  remark  — 

1.  That  the  exertions  of  the  London  Female  Mission  are  much 
required.  It  is  stated  on  what  is  deemed  good  authority,  that  there 
are  within  the  precincts  of  this  city  not  fewer  than  eighty  thousand 
females  living  upon  the  wages  of  their  iniquity,  supported  at  an 
expense  of  eight  millions  annually,  or  something  more  than  twenty 
thousand  pounds  per  day ;  and  that  one  out  of  every  three  of  the 
daughters  of  persons  in  the  humbler  walks  of  fife  are  found  to  asso- 
ciate with  these  outcasts  of  society  before  they  have  attained  the  age 
of  twenty  years.  Oh !  that  I  had  the  authors  of  this  appalling  evil 
now  before  me.  I  would  not  only  tell  them  with  tears  of  the  numer- 
ous families  they  have  ruined,  the  many  hearts  they  have  broken,  and 
the  unnumbered  souls  they  have  destroyed ;  but  I  would  implore  help 
of  God  to  seize  their  blood-stained  spirits,  and  shake  them  over  the 
pit  of  hell,  that  the  wailings  of  their  victims  might  rouse  them  to  a 
sense  of  their  sins  and  danger.  It  is  certainly  impossible  for  Christians, 
jealous  for  the  honor  of  God,  and  concerned  for  the  benefit  of  man,  to 
look  upon  the  state  of  our  metropohs  with  stoicism,  or  refuse  their 
co-operation  in  efforts  to  renovate  it.  Ours  is  the  city  of  the  plague  ; 
and  if  something  be  not  done  to  stay  it  in  its  deadly  progress  —  if  the 
pious  rush  not  in  between  the  living  and  the  dead  —  it  may  reach  our 
own  famiUes,  poison  our  own  cup,  and  this  great  and  wealthy  metrop- 
olis may  become  as  Admah,  and  be  made  like  unto  Zeboim.     Men  of 


CONVERSION   OF   SINNERS.  373 

Israel,  help !  Humanity  cries,  Help !  Patriotism  cries,  Help  !  Christ- 
ianitj  cries,  Help !  And  hark,  a  voice  issues  from  yonder  wretched 
garret,  where  there  is  one,  who  was  formerly  beautiful,  amiable,  modest, 
and  the  joy  of  her  parents'  hearts  ;  but  in  the  hour  of  temptation,  she 
fell,  and  is  now  degraded,  forsaken,  broken-hearted,  perishing ;  and 
oh !  hear  her,  for  she  cries  for  —  Help ! 

The  usages  of  society  are  such,  that  when  a  female  wanders  from 
the  path  of  virtue,  and  abandons  herself  to  a  course  of  infamy,  she  is 
prevented  from  returning  to  virtuous  society,  and  must  in  all  proba- 
bility perish  in  the  ways  of  error,  and  be  lost  for  ever,  independently 
of  the  kind  interposition  of  this  or  some  kindred  institution.  She  may 
be  disgusted  /with  her  mode  of  life,  and  earnestly  desire  to  forsake  it, 
as  is  the  case  with  many  such  characters  ;  but  where  can  she  go  ? 
Her  relations,  if  she  have  any,  feeling  that  she  has  so  greatly  dishon- 
ored them,  refuse  to  afford  her  shelter,  and  even  disown  her.  She  is 
without  character,  and  what  family,  in  her  present  state,  will  engage 
her  as  a  servant  ?  If  charity  do  not  therefore  stretch  forth  its  kind 
helping  hand,  what,  we  ask,  is  to  become  of  her  ?  We  do  not  sketch 
a  fictitious  picture,  but  believe  this  to  be  the  true  state  of  thousands 
in  this  metropolis.  Many  are  laboring  to  destroy  them  ;  and  will  no 
one  labor  to  save  them  ?  Millions  are  annually  expended  to  hasten 
their  souls  to  hell ;  and  shall  little  or  nothing  comparatively  be  given 
to  save  them  from  that  place  of  torment  ?  Exasperated  relations 
spurn  them  from  their  presence  ;  virtuous  families  refuse  to  employ 
and  shelter  them  ;  and  must  they  look  in  vain  to  the  followers  of  the 
benevolent  Jesus,  for  sympathy  and  refuge  ?  The  London  Female 
Mission  says,  No  !  The  views  which  have  now  been  given,  led  to  the 
establishment  of  this  institution.  May  you  also  be  so  impressed  with 
them,  as  to  afford  the  Mission  your  utmost  countenance  and  support, 
in  its  varied  forms  and  modes  of  operation. 

2.  The  exertions  of  the  London  Female  Mission  have  been  beneficial. 
This  society  has  met  with  various  forms  of  opposition  ;  but  the  Divine 
blessing  has  manifestly  rested  upon  it.  It  has  rescued  many  a  victim 
from  the  grasp  of  the  destroyer ;  bound  up  many  a  broken  heart ; 
healed  many  a  wounded  spirit ;  reclaimed  many  a  wandering  pi-odigal ; 
protected  many  a  virtuous  female  ;  and  saved  many  a  perishing  soul. 
Since  its  establishment  in  November,  1836  *  three  hundred  and  five 
young  women  have  been  rescued  from  an  evil  course  of  life.  This 
mission  contemplates  two  objects  ;  for  it  not  only  seeks,  by  the  Divine 
blessins,  the  restoration  of  the  fallen  to  their  families  and  to  their  God, 
but  it  aims  to  preserve  the  virtuous  from  the  snares  and  dangers  to 

*  This  sermon  was  preached  Oct.  1, 1840. 


374  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

■whicli  they  are  exposed.  For  the  accomplishment  of  the  former  object, 
it  has  established  a  "  Probationary  House,'''  in  which  there  are  at  pres- 
ent forty-five  females;  and  three  '■'  District  Asylums, '^  in  which  there 
are  one  hundred  and  forty-four  females.  For  the  accomplishment  of 
the  latter  object,  it  not  only  forms  "  Grirls'  Associations, '^  under  the 
control  and  direction  of  Christian  ladies,  with  the  view  of  cultivating 
moral  habits,  and  checking  in  its  incipient  state,  and  while  under  the 
parental  roof,  every  tendency  to  female  profligacy ;  and  provides 
"  Temporary  Refuges  for  indigent  young  women,'''  who  are  employed, 
instructed,  and  supported,  until  permanent  situations  can  be  obtained 
for  them ;  but  it  has  established  "  Servant's  Homes  and  Registries," 
where  such  as  are  out  of  place,  but  have  not  forfeited  their  character, 
are  provided  with  comfortable  lodgings  at  a  moderate  charge,  and 
where  a  registry  is  kept  to  facilitate  their  obtaining  situations.  It  also 
issues  two  monthly  publications,  and  several  tracts,  all  greatly  calcula- 
ted to  promote  its  benevolent  objects.  In  its  labors  of  love,  it  knows 
no  distinction  of  sect  or  party,  of  color  or  clime,  but  simply  aims, 
under  the  blessing  of  the  Most  High,  to  diminish  the  amount  of 
wretchedness  and  moral  degradation  to  be  found  in  London,  and  as  far 
as  possible  to  elevate  the  standard  of  female  character  ;  and  were  its 
funds  more  ample,  it  might  greatly  enlarge  the  sphere  of  its  opera- 
tions. The  committee  of  this  institution  earnestly  invite  the  attention 
of  the  benevolent  to  the  following  facts  :  — "  From  January  1st,  1839, 
to  January  1st,  1840,  a  period  of  one  year,  the  number  of  young 
women  who  applied  to  be  admitted  into  the  Asylum  of  the  London 
Female  Mission  was  404  ;  of  these,  109  were  received  ;  the  remaining 
number  were  sent  away  principally  for  want  of  room,  the  house  then 
rented  by  the  Mission  being  able  to  accommodate  only  thirty  inmates. 
Since  that  period,  a  larger  house,  capable  of  receiving  eighty  beds, 
has  been  purchased,  and  furnished  for  forty-eight  females  ;  to  which 
number  the  advantage  of  the  institution  is  now  extended.  But  though 
the  operations  of  the  society,  in  this  department  of  benevolence,  has 
been  greatly  enlarged,  and  the  managers  feel  that  tliey  have  advanced 
to  the  full  extent  their  funds  will  allow,  yet  the  number  of  applicants 
for  the  society's  aid,  is  still  so  great,  as  to  amount,  in  the  short  space 
of  three  days,  to  twenty-five  in  number  ;  to  all  of  whom  the  committee 
were  obliged  to  say,  "  We  cannot  receive  you."  What !  are  they  then 
to  return  to  their  haunts  of  vice  and  misery  ?  thus  to  be  repulsed  in 
their  attempts  to  escape  from  ruin  ?  We  cannot  receive  you  !  Who 
then  will  receive  them  ?  If  they  have  knocked  at  the  door  of  a  Chris- 
tian institution,  and  have  been  refused  admittance,  though  they  asked 
for  it  with  tears  of  penitence  in  their  eyes,  and  in  the  name  of  the  sm- 


CONVERSION   OF   SINNERS.  375 

ner's  Friend,  what  door  vrill  open  to  take  them  in  ?  We  cannot  receive 
you!  "  Tell  it  not  in  Gath,  publish  it  not  in  the  streets  of  Askelon," 
that  in  the  metropolis  of  the  Christian  world  where  truth  has  triumphed 
and  martyrs  have  bled,  in  three  days  twenty-five  females  applied  to  a 
number  of  Christian  ladies  and  gentlemen,  to  interpose  their  aid  to 
save  them  from  wretchedness  and  hell,  and  were  refused  that  aid. 
We  cannot  receive  you  !  Indeed  it  was  true  ;  and  no  person's  feel- 
ings can  be  more  deeply  affected  with  the  rejection  of  those  females, 
than  were  the  feelings  of  the  committee  of  the  London  Female  Mis- 
sion, in  being  necessitated,  by  their  exhausted  funds,  to  deny  the  as- 
sistance and  protection  sought  for.  The  committee  bring  the  case  of 
these  twenty-five  hapless  females  before  you  to-night ;  and  will  you,  as 
a  Christian  congregation,  refuse  to  replenish  their  funds,  and  thus 
practically  say  to  so  many  imploring  outcasts,  "  We  cannot  receive 
you  ?  "  What !  must  they  then  be  abandoned  to  ruin,  descend  into 
the  pit,  and  bitterly  exclaim,  as  it  closes  upon  them,  "  No  man  cared 
for  our  souls  ?  "  Remember,  you  must  meet  them  at  the  bar  of  God ; 
and  if  you  refuse  them  help,  and  they  should  in  consequence  be  lost, 
how  will  you  encounter  their  penetrating  and  upbraiding  glance,  as 
they  turn  from  the  judgment  seat  to  meet  their  awful  doom  ?  Will 
you  rather  save  money,  than  immortal  souls  ?  Your  money  perish 
with  you  ;  for  if  this  be  your  feeling,  it  is  easy  to  perceive  that  you  are 
"in  the  gall  of  bitterness,  and  in  the  bond  of  iniquity."  A  piercing 
cry  for  assistance  has  this  evening  reached  you ;  and  "  if  you  forbear 
to  deliver  them  that  are  drawn  into  death,  and  those  that  are  ready  to 
be  slain  ;  if  you  say.  Behold,  we  knew  it  not ;  doth  not  He  that  pon- 
dereth  the  heart  consider  it  ?  and  He  that  keepeth  the  soul,  doth  He 
not  know  it  ?  and  shall  not  He  render  to  every  man  according  to  his 
works  ?  '* 


376 

SERMON   XXXI. 

THE     GLORY     OF     THE     GOSPEL. 
BY  REV.   T.   ADKINS. 

"  The  glorious  gospel  of  the  blessed  God."  —  1  Timothy,  i.  11. 

Man  is  an  ambitious  being  :  the  desire  of  attaining  to  some  species 
of  real  or  imaginary  excellence  is  intimately  interwoven  with  the  very 
texture  of  the  human  mind.  This  desire  commences  with  the  earliest 
dawn  of  our  conscious  existence  —  as  soon  as  we  are  capable  of  form- 
ing an  opinion  respecting  our  actions  and  our  possible  circumstances  : 
and  it  remains  with  us  through  every  subsequent  stage  of  our  life ; 
stimulating  us  to  future  attainments,  and  holding  out  the  prospect  of 
greater  good. 

But  the  entrance  of  sin  has  beclouded  our  faculty  of  spiritual  per- 
ception, and  vitiated  our  moral  taste :  and  hence  many  seek  happiness 
in  that  which  is  not  in  itself  essentially  "  glorious;"  but  which  only 
tends  to  augment  the  suffering,  and  to  increase  the  misery  of  the 
heart.  There  are  individuals  who  possess  such  a  perspicacity  of  pride 
as  to  discover  in  themselves  excellences  imperceptible  to  any  eye  but 
their  own.  There  are  those  who  are  so  disposed  to  attain  to  elevation, 
that  they  are  content  to  occupy  a  position,  even  though  it  be  on  a 
dunghill,  if  they  can  but  secure  the  attention  of  their  fellow  men. 
There  are  others  who,  having  no  virtues  to  plume  themselves  with, 
boast  of  their  very  vices,  and  glory  in  their  shame. 

My  brethren,  I  have  this  evening  to  put  before  you  an  object,  not 
of  imaginary,  but  of  real  glory ;  an  object,  the  transcendent  splendor 
of  which  surpasses  all  that  human  ambition  ever  panted  after,  or 
human  success  ever  won.  All  the  productions  of  nature,  and  all  the 
events  of  time  —  all  that  has  been  achieved  by  the  ingenuity  of  man, 
or  the  majesty  of  God  himself,  is  veiled  before  its  transcendent  splen- 
dor :  and  in  reference  to  them  we  may  say,  what  the  apostle  said  in 
reference  to  the  comparative  splendor  of  the  two  dispensations  — 
that  the  former  had  no  glory  "  by  reason  of  the  glory  that  excelleth." 
0  that  this  evening  each  of  us  may  purge  our  abused  vision  at  the 
fountain  of  heavenly  radiance,  that  we  may  be  blessed  with  spiritual 
perception  to  behold  the  unequalled  splendor  of  that,  respecting  which 
it  is  declared,  by  the  voice  of  infallible  truth,  that  it  is  "  the  glorious 
gospel  of  the  blessed  God." 


GLORY   OF   THE   GOSPEL.  377 

The  expression  rendered,  "  blessed,"  might,  with  no  less  propriety, 
have  been  translated  "  the  happy  gospel."  And  this  suggests  to  us 
an  important  train  of  thought.  All  holy  beings  are  happy  ;  and  all 
happy  beings  are  benevolent :  they  are  happy  just  in  proportion  as 
they  are  holy ;  and  they  are  benevolent  just  in  proportion  as  they  are 
happy.  Angels  are  holier  than  men,  and  therefore  they  are  more 
happy,  and  more  benevolent.  UnaUied  to  us  by  the  ordinary  sympa- 
thies of  a  common  nature,  they  yet  take  an  intense  interest  in  all  that 
relates  to  the  well-being  of  man.  God  is  the  holiest  being,  and  there- 
fore he  is  the  happiest ;  and,  being  the  happy  God,  he  is  the  most 
benevolent  being  in  the  universe  ;  and  his  own  happiness  is  augmented 
whilst  he  is  diffusing  felicity  through  countless  myriads  of  intelligent 
beings. 

By  "  the  gospel,"  I  understand  that  revelation  of  mercy  in  which 
the  Deity,  through  the  substitution  and  sacrifice  of  his  Son,  conde- 
scends to  bestow  blessings  on  a  lost  and  ruined  world.  It  is  the  gospel, 
because  it  is  glad  tidings  ;  glad  tidings,  inasmuch  as  it  is  a  scheme 
through  which  the  Deity  bestows  the  greatest  blessings  on  man  — 
bestows  them  in  a  manner  correspondent  with  the  perfection  of  his  own 
nature,  and  in  a  manner  adapted  to  the  moral  impotence  of  our  own. 

Instead,  however,  of  occupying  your  time  with  any  prefatory  re- 
marks respecting  the  nature  and  constitution  of  this  gospel,  I  proceed 
to  seize  on  the  distinguishing  feature  which  the  apostle  places  before 
us,  and   remind  you  that  it  is  "  the  glorious  gospel :  "  and  it  is  so 

BECAUSE   IT   IS  A  SySTEM    OF   ETERNAL    TrUTH,  IN  WHICH   THE  MORAL 

Perfections  of  the  Godhead  are  most  transcendently  display- 
ed. There  is  but  one  being  in  the  universe  that  is  sclf-existent  and 
dependent,  and  who,  consequently,  can  make  his  own  glory  the  ulti- 
mate object  of  his  existence  :  and  that  being  is  God.  Consequent 
obligation  is  the  condition  on  which  man  receives  his  existence  :  "  No 
man  Uveth  to  himself,  and  no  man  dieth  to  himself :  for  whether  we 
live,  we  live  to  the  Lord ;  and  whether  we  die,  we  die  to  the  Lord  : 
whether  we  live,  therefore,  or  die,  we  are  the  Lord's."  The  sun 
rfhines,  not  for  his  own  glory,  but  for  the  glory  of  him  who  has  placed 
him  as  a  lamp  in  the  firmament  of  heaven,  and  for  the  benefit  of  those 
minor  orbs  that  roll  round  in  infinite  space.  Some  men  arc  suns,  and 
others  are  only  stars  ;  but  all  are  compelled  to  shine  —  to  shine,  not 
for  their  own  glory,  but  for  the  glory  of  Ilim  who  has  fixed  them  in 
their  appointed  spheres.  And  there  js  a  propriety  in  all  this.  If  a 
finite  creature  were  to  seek  his  own  glory,  he  would  make  an  attempt 
to  vault  into  the  very  throne,  and  invade  the  very  prerogative  of 
heaven ;  he  would  aim  at  that  which  does  not  belong  to  the  creature, 


;j78  the   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

because  Ms  glory  cannot  be  the  greatest  good.  But  for  the  Deity  to 
aim  at  this  object,  and  to  achieve  it,  is  for  him  to  achieve  the  greatest 
good :  and  at  the  very  moment  that  this  is  enhanced  to  its  highest 
splendor,  it  becomes  the  medium  through  which,  in  a  proportionate 
deo-ree,  the  happiness  of  the  moral  universe  is  enhanced. 

Now,  in  reference  to  this  "  glorious  gospel,"  we  say,  that  in  it  all 
the  oyerfections  of  the  Divine  nature  are  strikingly  displayed.  "The 
heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God,  and  the  firmament  showeth  his 
handy  work."  The  dread  magnificence  of  the  stars  —  the  beauty  of 
the  varying  seasons  — the  living  millions  that  swim  in  the  seas,  that 
float  in  the  air,  that  graze  in  the  field,  or,  in  endless  combination  of 
color  and  form,  people  the  regions  of  infinite  space  —  speak  of  a  pres- 
ent and  a  presiding  God.  But,  brethren,  where  is  the  record  of  par- 
don ?  Where  is  the  proof  of  forgiving  mercy  ?  It  is  neither  written 
by  the  sun-beam,  nor  wafted  by  the  breeze.  The  sea  says,  "  It  is  not 
in  me  :  "  all  nature  says,  "  It  is  not  in  me."  "  Canst  thou,  by  search- 
ing, find  out  God  ?  Canst  thou  find  out  the  Almighty  unto  perfec- 
tion ?  "  These  are  past  man's  understanding :  how  small  a  portion  is 
known  to  him  !  But  when  we  turn  to  this  "  glorious  gospel,"  we  see 
the  Deity  full  robed,  in  his  round  of  rays  complete.  In  it  we  see 
exemplified  what  is  profound  in  wisdom,  inflexible  in  justice,  awful  in 
dignity,  and  touching  in  compassion,  in  their  individual  excellence,  and 
in  their  harmonious  combination. 

But  in  this  "  glorious  gospel"  there  is,  besides  the  exhibition  of  all 
the  perfections  of  the  Godhead,  the  most  striking  developement  of  them. 
For  though  all  the  attributes  of  the  Godhead  are  infinite,  yet  their 
manifestation  may  be  varied  in  an  endless  diversity  of  degrees  and 
forms :  but  in  this  "  glorious  gospel  "  there  is  the  most  striking  display 
of  the  whole.  Let  us  look  at  these  perfections  of  the  Divine  nature 
as  philosophers  do  at  a  ray  of  light,  through  the  medium  of  prism : 
let  us  resolve  them  into  their  original  elements  (if  I  may  be  allowed 
the  expression) ,  and  bring  them  to  this  test :  and  we  shall  point  them 
towards  this  "glorious  gospel:"  there  is  the  most  striking  display 
of  all  the  attributes  of  Jehovah. 

Is  love  an  attribute  of  the  Divine  nature  ?  God  is  love  :  he  is  benev- 
olence itself ;  it  dwells  in  him  as  its  proper  seat ;  it  springs  from  him 
as  its  proper  source  ;  and  ever  actuates  him  as  a  vital  and  immortal 
principle.  We  see  it  in  the  fragrance  that  regales  our  senses,  and  in 
the  beauty  that  charms  our  eye  :  as  Paley  has  delightfully  said,  "  Paia 
is  the  exception  —  happiness  is  the  rule :  "  and  in  all  the  varied  forms 
of  happiness  in  which  the  countless  myriads  of  God's  creatures  that 


GLORY   OF   THE   GOSPEL.  379 

people  this  lower  world  do  possess  and  exhibit  it,  we  see  so  many  indi- 
cations of  the  truth  of  the  maxim  that  "  God  is  love." 

But  this  is  only  as  a  taper  to  the  sun,  compared  with  the  exhibition 
of  eternal  love  in  the  cross  of  the  Son  of  God.  That  such  a  sacrifice 
should  be  offered  —  0,  this  comes  home  to  our  souls  with  melting  and 
with  mighty  persuasion.  It  is  not  merely  that  "  we  have  redemption," 
but,  "  we  have  redemption  through  his  blood.^^  It  is  not  merely  that 
wc  have  eternal  Hfe,  but  that  that  life  cost  the  Son  of  God  his  own. 
And  whether  we  consider  the  magnitude  of  the  blessings  that  we 
receive,  or  the  price  at  which  they  were  purchased,  it  is  such  a  display 
of  divine  love  as  we  shall  be  occupied  through  the  countless  ages  of 
eternity  in  endeavoring  to  comprehend.  Hence  it  has  been  beautifully 
said  that  it  is  "  the  noon-tide  of  meridian  compassion ; "  it  is  "  the 
everlasting  display  of  everlasting  love."  And  hence  the  apostle  of 
the  Gentiles,  when  he  would  give  us  an  exhibition  of  the  love  of  God, 
does  not  take  us  to  some  lofty  mountain,  and  there  spread  before  us, 
in  beautiful  perspective,  all  the  majestic  attractions  of  nature  ;  but  he 
takes  us  to  the  foot  of  Calvary,  and,  pointing  us  to  the  illustrious  suf- 
ferer, he  says,  "  Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that  he 
loved  us,  and  gave  his  Son  to  be  a  propitiation  for  our  sins." 

Is  justice  an  attribute  of  Divine  nature  ?  Where  do  we  see  it  dis- 
j)layed  so  effectually  as  in  "  the  glorious  gospel  of  the  blessed  God !  " 
Justice  is  that  attribute  of  his  nature  by  which  he  is  made  to  assigi*  to 
every  intelligent  and  accountable  being  that  which  is  his  due.  He  has 
evinced  his  righteous  displeasure  against  sin  in  a  thousand  striking 
forms.  I  see  it  engraven  on  the  arms  that  are  washed  on  the  shores 
of  the  Red  Sea :  I  see  it  in  those  cities  of  the  Plain  that  are  the 
blighted  and  blasted  monuments  of  the  eternal  ire  of  God :  I  see  it  in 
that  abode  where  "  the  worm  dieth  not,  and  the  fire  is  not  (lucnched ;  " 
where  prayer  is  unavailing,  where  repentance  is  ineffectual,  where 
mercy  is  unknown. 

But  in  each,  in  all  of  these,  I  have  not  so  awful  an  exhibition  of  the 
inflexible  justice  of  God,  as  when  I  go  to  the  affecting  scenes  of  Geth- 
semane  and  Calvary.  There  he  hangs,  rent  with  wounds,  and  racked 
with  pain  ;  his  bones  dislocated,  his  nerves  convulsed.  A  gushing 
crimson  tide  flows  from  his  bleeding  heart :  it  trickles  down  his  sacred 
body  ;  it  stains  with  purple  the  very  ground  on  which  his  cross  stands. 
It  is  noon ;  and  yet  it  is  awfully  dark.  "  Moi,  Uloi,  lama  sabacthani  ?  " 
"  My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me  ?  "  And  why  is  all 
this  ?  0,  brethren,  it  is  justice  sheathing  its  sword  in  the  heart  of 
mercy  :  it  is  Jehovah's  Son  bearing  a  weight  of  woe  which  none  but 
Omnipotence    could  inflict,  and  none   but  Omnipotence   could  bear. 


380  THE  ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

And  if  I  wish  for  a  display,  either  of  the  justice  of  Jehovah,  or  the 
moral  turpitude  of  sin,  I  must  view  it  in  the  cross  of  Christ. 

Is  wisdom  an  attribute  of  the  Divine  nature  ?  Where  have  we  such 
a  display  of  it  as  in  "  the  glorious  gospel  of  the  blessed  God  ?  "  Wis- 
dom consists  in  selecting  the  most  suitable  objects,  and  in  adopting  the 
most  efficient  means  for  the  attainment  of  those  objects.  Now,  in  this 
gospel,  the  Deity  has  abounded  towards  us  in  all  wisdom  and  pru- 
dence. I  can  very  well  conceive  of  holy  and  happy  beings  conferring 
kindness  on  holy  and  happy  beings  in  return :  but  it  is  left  to  the  wis- 
dom of  the  cross  to  exhibit  the  medium  in  which  a  being  of  unsullied 
holiness  can,  compatibly  with  the  claims  of  justice,  pardon  the  guilty 
and  save  the  lost.  I  can  very  well  conceive  how  mercy  can  pardon 
the  offender,  or  how  justice  can  punish  his  sin :  but  it  is  left  to  the 
mysterious  developement  of  Calvary  to  unfold  the  method  by  which, 
while  the  Eternal  Legislator  maintains,  unimpaired,  the  equity  of  his 
moral  government,  he  adopts  into  his  family,  and  bestows  all  the  marks 
of  love  upon  that  very  offender  who  has  trampled  on  his  authority, 
and  hurled  defiance  at  his  throne.  Here,  then,  we  have  the  most  vivid 
display  of  all  the  perfections  of  the  Godhead. 

We  must,  however,  advance  a  step  further :  here  is  the  most  har- 
monious exhibition  of  the  perfections  of  the  Cfodhead.  It  is  necessary 
for  the  divine  glory,  that  all  the  attributes  of  the  Godhead  should  be 
illustrated  in  harmony  with  each  other,  and  that  the  scheme  of  mercy 
itself  should  be  constructed  on  the  principles  of  immutable  justice. 
Supposing  that  there  exists  a  law ;  that  that  law  has  been  violated  ; 
and  that  the  Divine  Legislator  determines  to  pardon  the  offender :  it  is 
obvious  to  a  demonstration  that  he  can  only  do  this,  compatibly  with 
the  claims  of  justice,  through  the  medium  of  substitution  and  of  atone- 
ment, and  putting  the  offender  under  a  course  of  moral  discipline. 
Were  Jehovah  to  bestow  the  blessing  of  eternal  life  through  any 
medium  which  allowed  his  holiness  to  be  sullied,  or  his  veracity  to  be 
impeached,  such  an  exhibition  would  not  be  the  gospel ;  because  the 
interests  of  a  part  —  and  that,  peradventure,  a  very  small  part  of  the 
intelligent  universe,  and  that  even  a  guilty  part  —  would  be  advanced 
at  the  expense  of  the  whole  :  for  the  various  orders  of  intelligent 
beings  might,  from  that  very  moment,  imagine  that  they  could,  with 
impunity,  trample  on  his  authority,  and  hurl  defiance  at  his  throne. 
Such  an  act  of  indiscriminate  lenity,  therefore,  would  not  be  the  gospel, 
but  a  mere  substitute  for  it,  unworthy  the  character  of  the  Deity,  and 
unadapted  to  the  moral  necessities  of  the  universe. 

There  is,  then,  the  great  problem  to  be  solved  —  How  can  God  be 
just,  and  yet  the  justifier  of  the  ungodly  ?      How  can  sin  be  pardoned, 


GLORT   OF   THE   GOSPEL.  881 

and  yet  punished  ?  How  can  the  law  be  maintained  in  its  authoritj, 
and  the  violator  of  that  law  be  rescued  from  unrepealable  and  eternal 
death  ?  From  the  depth  of  the  Everlasting  Mind  there  arose  that 
scheme  by  which  all  these  important  ends  were  attained.  The  Ever- 
lasting Son  of  the  Everlasting  Father  stooped  from  his  throne  in  the 
heavens,  and  he  became  the  weeping  babe  in  the  manger  of  Bethlehem, 
the  weary  traveller  in  the  journey  of  life,  the  agonizing  sufferer  in  the 
garden  of  Gethsemane,  the  spotless  victim  on  the  accursed  tree.  And 
■when,  by  the  mysterious  oblation  on  the  cross,  once  offered,  he  had 
harmonized  all  the  attributes  of  the  Godhead  in  one  triumphant  act  of 
mercy,  he  opened  a  medium  by  which  —  compatibly  with  the  claims 
of  eternal  justice,  that  looked  so  high  and  made  so  rigid  a  demand  — 
he  could  pour  the  blessings  of  eternal  salvation  on  the  very  vilest  of 
the  vile.  Brethren,  this  is  the  moral  glory  of  the  Gospel ;  and  this  is 
the  glory  of  ministers,  that  they  have  to  preach  it.  Let  the  wise  man 
glory  in  his  wisdom  ;  let  the  rich  man  glory  in  his  riches ;  let  the  strong 
man  glory  in  his  strength  ;  God  forbid  that  I  should  glory,  save  in  the 
cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

Nor  is  this  a  useless  speculation  ;  it  is  as  important  as  it  is  true. 
For  the  moral  character  of  the  Deity  is  at  the  foundation  of  all  virtue. 
If  that  were  to  be  sullied,  virtue  would  have  no  foundation,  hell  would 
have  no  terror,  obedience  would  have  no  authority  and  no  rule.  If  you 
could  shake  the  character  of  the  Deity,  you  would  shake  his  very 
throne,  and  unhinge  the  moral  harmony  of  the  universe  itself.  There- 
fore it  is  of  the  highest  importance,  not  only  to  the  happiness  of 
creatures  in  this  inferior  world,  but  to  intelligences  that  occupy  the 
ilhmitable  regions  of  the  universal  government ;  it  is  essential  to  each 
and  to  all,  that  there  be  a  correct  exhibition  of  the  character  of  God. 
And  not  only  so,  but  it  bears  a  most  beneficial  aspect  upon  the  moral 
happiness  of  beings  like  ourselves.  For  if  you  and  I  Avere  to  cherish 
expectations  of  future  happiness  that  were  not  to  be  built  on  the  foun- 
dation of  the  divine  glory,  and  to  be  cherished  only  in  proportion  as 
that  glory  was  tarnished,  then  our  hope  must  termmate  in  despair. 
But,  when  a  scheme  is  resolved  upon,  is  brought  before  us,  is  explained 
to  us,  in  which,  at  the  very  moment  that  Jehovah  pardons  the  guilty 
and  saves  the  lost,  he  does,  at  that  time  and  through  that  medium,  only 
add  an  additional  ray  to  his  own  ineffable  grandeur  and  glory,  then 
despondency  itself  may  hope,  and  the  most  forlorn  of  the  human  race 
may  cherish  a  well  founded  hope  of  everlasting  salvation. 

But  I  must  advance  to  the  second  part  of  the  discourse,  and  remind 
you  that  this  is  "  the  glorious  gospel  of  the  blessed  God,"  because  it 


382  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

IS  ADMIRABLY  ADAPTED  TO  THE   MoRAL   AND    SPIRITUAL   NECESSITIES 

OF  Man.  Those  necessities  are  vast  and  varied  ;  but  there  is  no  want 
that  it  cannot  supply,  no  guilt  that  it  cannot  pardon,  no  depth  of  misery 
■which  it  cannot  explore. 

View  man  under  all  the  phases  of  his  existence,  and  you  will  find 
there  is  the  fullest  adaptation  in  this  gospel  to  each  and  to  all.  Man 
is  an  ignorant  being ;  ignorance  is  the  offspring  of  guilt ;  and  when  man 
became  a  sinner,  his  mental  vision  was  beclouded.  As  sin  diffused 
itself,  ignorance  followed  as  its  attendant,  till  it  thickened  on  the 
nations  into  a  darkness  that  might  be  felt.  In  reference  to  all  that  Avas 
of  the  highest  importance,  the  world  was  in  a  state  of  grovelling  igno- 
rance :  conjecture  instead  of  certainty,  probability  instead  of  proof, 
were  all  to  which  they  could  attain.  Their  poets,  it  is  true,  sung  of 
Tartarian  gulfs  and  Elysian  fields ;  but  these  were  only  considered 
poetic  flights  of  the  fancy,  while  the  realities  concealed  beneath  them 
were  not  generally  believed.  All  the  light  that  was  possessed  by  the 
world  prior  to  the  disclosure  of  the  gospel  was  that  which  was  confined 
to  the  small  nation  of  the  Jews ;  and  this,  compared  with  the  light 
which  was  thereafter  to  be  revealed,  was  as  the  first  ray  of  the  morn- 
ing struggling  with  the  retiring  obscurity  of  the  night.  But  when  the 
star  arose  at  Bethany,  to  dispel  the  darkness  of  the  long  evening,  and 
poured  its  radiance  on  the  path  of  life,  Jesus  explained  what  was  ambig- 
uous, he  established  what  was  doubtful ;  he  elucidated  what  was  obscure ; 
and  he  shed  an  unearthly  light  on  that  all-important  question  —  "  How 
can  man  be  just  with  God  ?     How  can  man  be  pure  with  his  Maker  ?  " 

But  when  we  say  that  this  gospel  is  adapted  to  man  as  aw  ignorant 
leing,  I  would  remind  you  that  it  is  so,  not  merely  as  adapted  to  con- 
vey to  him  the  truth  he  should  understand,  but,  by  a  light  directed  to 
the  understanding  and  to  the  heart,  first  to  instruct  the  judgment,  and 
then  to  renovate  the  soul.  There  is  all  the  difference  in  the  world 
between  mere  intellectual  and  spiritual  light ;  between  that  knowledge 
that  may  be  obtained  by  the  unaided  efforts  of  the  human  mind,  and 
that  which  is  to  be  acquired  by  the  teaching  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 
The  one  is  as  different  from  the  other  as  the  mere  picture  of  a  country 
as  it  is  painted  on  a  map  is  from  the  country  itself,  where,  with  its  hills 
and  dales,  and  rivers,  it  stretches  itself  before  your  view.  A  man  may 
have  some  faint  conception  that  honey  is  sweet,  or  music  harmonious  ; 
but  the  individual  who  has  not  the  power  of  tasting  and  hearmg  can 
have  no  conception  of  the  sweetness  of  the  one,  or  the  melody  of  the 
other.  Now,  there  is  a  species  of  spiritual  perception  with  which  the 
soul  must  be  invested  ere  it  is  capable  of  seeing  the  excellences  of 
eternal  truth.      And  here  the  gospel  comes  to  our  aid,  to  dispel  from 


GLORY   OF   THE    GOSPEL.  383 

our  minds  the  darkness  of  ignorance,  and  the  delusions  of  error.  It 
carries  the  Hght  of  eternal  truth  down  to  every  compartment  of  the 
inner  man :  and  that  God  who,  in  the  beginning  of  time,  commanded 
the  light  to  shine  out  of  darkness,  shines  into  our  minds  to  give  us  the 
light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

It  is  adapted  likewise  to  man  as  a  guilty  being.  That  he  is  guilty, 
I  need  not  pause  to  prove.  Our  violation  of  the  divine  law,  our  abuse 
of  the  divine  goodness,  our  forgetfulness  of  the  divine  authority,  all 
combine  to  fasten  on  our  minds  the  appalhng  conviction  that,  as  by 
nature  we  are  the  children  of  wrath,  so  by  practice  we  are  the  children 
of  disobedience.  Tremendous  thought !  to  be  exposed  to  the  displeas- 
ure of  that  being,  compared  with  which  the  concentrated  indignation 
of  all  the  beings  in  the  universe  would  be  only  as  the  displeasure  of  a 
child.  And  yet  this  is  the  awful  moral  predicament  in  which  every 
sinner  is  found.  He  is  exposed  to  the  lightning  of  that  eye,  he  is 
exposed  to  the  grasp  of  that  omnipotent  arm ;  and,  if  he  die  as  he 
lives,  he  sinks  into  a  state  where  the  mercy  of  God  is  clean  gone  for 
ever,  and  he  will  be  favorable  no  more. 

Some  of  you  are  called  upon  this  evening  to  pity  the  condition  of 
the  heathen.  I  would  rather,  for  a  moment,  call  upon  you  to  ])\tj  your- 
selves. But  peradventure,  you  ask,  "  How  will  sin  be  pardoned  ? 
Why  will  repentance  avail  nothing  ?  "  And  what  can  you  do  by 
repentance  ?  Can  you  recall  the  past,  and  thereby  avert  the  future  ? 
Can  you  do  more  by  repentance  than  acquit  yourself  of  present  obli- 
gation ?  Can  you  produce  a  surplus  of  merit  that  shall  be  employed 
for  the  reduction  of  your  past  deficiencies  ?  Must  the  pardon  of  the 
philosophy  which  was  too  proud  to  submit  to  the  humihating  doctrines 
of  the  cross,  be  based  on  the  exploded  notion  of  supererogation  ?  K 
we  are  left  in  doubt  on  this  subject,  how  sin  can  be  pardoned,  and  God 
yet  glorified,  the  gospel  comes  in  to  our  aid.  It  is  the  precious  blood 
of  Jesus  which  can  alone  avail.  He  is  "  the  end  of  the  law  for 
righteousness  to  every  one  that  believeth."  And  when  the  sinner 
comes  and  places  the  burden  of  his  weakness  and  his  woe  on  his 
precious  blood  and  prevailing  intercession,  in  that  very  act,  whatever 
may  have  been  his  anterior  crimes,  he  passes  from  death  unto  life  — 
from  a  state  of  condemnation  to  a  state  of  acceptation  —  from  the 
dark,  dreary  dominion  of  nature,  into  the  light  and  loveliness  of  the 
kingdom  of  God:  and  those  perfections  of  the  Godhead  which  before 
had  lowered  upon  him  with  frowns  of  severity,  now  relax  into  smiles 
of  love  ;  and  "  there  is  therefore  now  no  condemnation  to  them  that  are 
in  Christ  Jesus,  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh,  bui  after  the  Spirit." 


384  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

This  gospel  is  still  further  adapted  to  man  as  a  ^polluted  being.  And 
we  bring  the  broad  and  sweeping  charge  against  human  nature  as  a 
whole  —  that  it  is  in  this  state  of  pollution.  We  acknowledge  that 
there  is  a  vast  disparity  as  it  relates  to  the  exterior  man.  We  know 
there  may  be  the  consistency  of  friendship,  the  ardor  of  patriotism,  and 
the  firmness  of  inflexible  principle,  even  where  the  gospel  has  not 
found  its  way ;  and  individuals  who  admit  this  truth,  Jbring  it  as  a 
charge  that  we  have  underrated  the  condition  of  mankind,  and,  there- 
fore, the  gospel  is  not  necessary  for  them.  We  admit  that  there  are 
in  the  character  of  man  some  appearances  more  favorable  than  others : 
we  admit  there  are  some  species  of  excellence  to  be  found  where  the 
gospel  has  not  worked  its  way.  But  let  us  come  to  the  point  —  on 
what  are  we  to  form  our  estimate  of  the  moral  character  of  man  ? 
Upon  principle  and  motive.  Upon  that  which  we  designate  principle 
depends  the  moral  virtue  of  every  action,  and  the  moral  quality  of 
every  mind.  Where  this  principle  is  wanting,  there  the  character  is 
reduced  to  one  mass  of  moral  depravity  :  where  this  principle  exists, 
there  is,  undoubtedly,  a  substratum  of  moral  excellence.  And  when 
we  proceed  to  the  examination,  we  shall  find,  that  though  there  may  be 
amiable  dispositions,  generous  feelings,  and  firm  friendships,  there  is  a 
total  destitution  of  moral  principle,  in  the  scriptural  sense  of  the  word ; 
for  that  principle  is,  supreme  love  to  God,  evincing  itself  in  all  its 
appropriate  forms.  Bring  forth,  therefore,  the  most  flattering  speci- 
men of  human  nature  that  your  imagination  can  paint,  or  your  expe- 
rience can  produce,  whether  in  Christian  or  heathen  l^nds  ;  if  the  love 
of  God  has  not  actuated  it,  if  the  fear  of  God  has  not  restrained  it,  if 
a  regard  to  the  Divine  authority  has  not  influenced  it,  then,  notwith- 
standing the  attractions  with  which  the  man  is  invested,  we  are  com- 
pelled to  reduce  him  to  his  own  naked  deformity,  and  to  say,  he  is  "  a 
child  of  wrath  even  as  othei'S."  Weighed  in  the  balance  of  the  sanc- 
tuary, he  is  found  wanting  :  measured  by  the  rule  of  right  and  wrong, 
he  comes  short  of  wliat  regeneration  and  pardon  imply :  and  the  decis- 
ions of  the  last  day  will  award  the  unhappy  outcast  his  destiny  amongst 
those  who  had  lived  without  repentance,  and  died  without  hope. 

And  is  this  the  condition  of  man,  as  man,  under  all  the  varied  forms 
of  his  existence  ?  And  has  the  sin-sick  angel  of  death  breathed  on 
the  vast  family  of  man  ?  And  are  they  all  spiritually  dead  ?  It  is 
true.  And  how  are  they  to  be  made  alive  again  ?  The  past  history 
of  the  world  is  only  a  mournful  record  of  the  triumphs  of  sin,  over 
every  barrier  that  civilization  or  philosophy  has  interposed.  But  "  the 
glorious  gospel  "  comes  in  to  our  aid  ;  and,  at  the  very  moment  that  it 
reveals  to  us  an  all-efficacious  atonement  through  faith,  by  which  sin 


GLORY    OF   THE   GOSPEL.  385 

may  be  pardoned,  it  exhibits  a  benign  agent  who  can  enlighten  what  is 
dark,  and  cleanse  what  is  impure,  and  elevate  what  is  earth!}',  and 
carry  the  very  light  of  heaven  into  the  inert  mass  of  this  world's  cor- 
ruption. And  this  benign  agent  will  communicate  himself  to  the  most 
unworthy  supplicant  that  implores  its  aid,  not  only  with  the  sovereignty 
of  a  prince,  but  with  the  generosity  of  a  friend.  So  that  no  man  is 
doomed  to  live  the  slave  of  sin  contrary  to  his  will.  Wherever  ho  is, 
this  gospel  comes  to  his  aid.  Living  under  a  dispensation  of  mercy, 
however  reduced  he  may  be  by  the  recklessness  of  his  evil  propensit 
ties,  the  gospel  meets  him  on  the  very  ground  to  which  he  is  reduced, 
raises  his  prostrate  spirit,  and  impresses  upon  it  the  long-lost  lineaments 
of  heaven. 

It  is  "  the  glorious  gospel "  because  it  is  adapted  to  man,  as  a  mis- 
erable being.  Misery  and  guilt  are  linked  to  each  other  in  an  unbroken 
chain ;  and  no  man  can  be  the  voluntary  slave  of  sin,  without,  in  a 
proportionate  degree,  being  the  victim  of  wretchedness.  To  prove  this, 
I  need  not  exhibit  to  j^ou  the  many-colored  woes  which  obtain  in  this 
lower  world ;  I  need  not  point  out  to  you  the  pestilence  impregnating 
the  air  with  poison,  and  war  drenching  its  sword  in  blood ;  I  need  not 
take  you  down  to  those  haunts  where  the  victims  of  want  retire  to  die ; 
I  will  take  you  where  some  of  you  may  be  reluctant  to  go ;  I  will  take 
you  into  the  interior  of  an  unpardoned  sinner's  heart,  and  there  you 
will  find  misery  personified  before  your  view.  He  has  a  conscience  — 
a  conscience  that  appears  to  slumber  —  and  he  may  even  imagine  that 
it  is  dead.  But  it  is  active  all  the  while  :  with  minute  attention  it 
notices  every  action  of  his  life  ;  it  chi'onicles  every  thought,  and  waits 
Only  the  favorable  moment  to  read  the  black  catalogue  aloud,  to  the 
confusion  of  the  sinner  and  the  astonishment  of  the  "vyorld.  Awaken- 
ing, by  some  unexpected  incident  in  the  history  of  his  life,  his 
conscience  is  like  rousing  the  hungry  lion  in  his  lair :  no  power  can 
resist  its  force,  no  attempts  can  mitigate  its  rage.  0,  the  horrors  of 
an  accusing  conscience !  There  are  some  evils  which  you  may  escape 
by  going  into  company  ;  there  are  others  which  you  may  avoid  by  going 
into  solitude :  but  the  guUty  wretch  passes  into  company,  and  his  guilty 
conscience  dashes  the  untasted  cup  of  pleasure  from  his  trembling  lips : 
he  goes  into  solitude,  and,  as  a  spirit,  it  passes  before  him,  and  "  the 
hair  of  his  flesh  stands  up."  0  man,  whoever  thou  art,  whose  con- 
science is  unappeascd  by  the  blood  of  sprinkHng,  peace  of  mind  thou 
canst  not  enjoy : 

"The  dreadful  syllables  —  death,  hell,  and  sin  — 
Tho'  whispered,  plainly  tell  what  works  within; 
That  conscience  there  performs  its  faithful  part, 
And  writes  a  doomsday  sentence  on  your  heart." 

25 


386  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

And  how  is  tlils  conscience  to  be  appeased  ?  Will  philosophy  avail  ? 
Will  scepticism  avail  ?  Will  pleasure  avail  ?  Miserable  comforters 
are  they  all ;  a  guilty  conscience,  like  the  barbed  arrow  in  the  panting 
sides  of  the  wounded  deer,  adheres  to  him  wherever  he  goes,  and  every 
attempt  to  eradicate  the  fatal  shaft  only  lacerates  the  wound  the  more. 
Am  I  addressing  such  a  being  this  evening ;  and  do  you  ask,  with 
anxious,  pali^itating  breast,  "  How  shall  I  escape  the  wrath  to  come  ?  " 
0,  I  rejoice  that  I  stand  before  you  with  "  the  glorious  gospel  of  the 
blessed  God."  That  very  atonement  that  satisfied  the  claims  of  justice, 
will  satisfy  the  claims  of  conscience  ;  that  very  blood  that  expiated  the 
guilt  of  sin,  will  allay  the  throbbings  of  an  anxious  mind.  Here  is  the 
balm,  the  vital  and  all-healing  balm,  that  alone  can  reach  the  emer- 
gency of  your  case  ;  all  else  is  but  moral  empyricism,  that  mocks  the 
misery  it  proposes  to  alleviate,  and  deepens  the  wound  it  proposes  to 
heal.  Come  to  the  Cross  ;  come,  and  by  faith  apply  the  precious  blood 
of  sprinkling,  and  yoa  will  have  peace  within  and  peace  above,  "  a 
tranquil  conscience  and  a  smiling  God ; "  a  peace  which,  built  on  a 
firm  foundation,  and  supported  by  principle,  cannot  be  shaken  by  aught 
that  time  can  develope,'  or  eternity  conceal ;  a  peace  which,  like  the 
unruffled  surface  of  the  lake  on  a  calm  summer's  evening,  is  not  only 
tranquil,  but  reflects  on  its  bosom  the  very  tranquillity  of  the  skies. 
0,  could  I  but  persuade  you  to  come  and  allay  the  throbbings  of  your 
mind,  by  the  application  of  this  precious  blood ;  then  you  would  feel 
the  truth  of  the  declaration,  that  it  is  "  the  glorious  gospel  of  the 
blessed  God." 

This  gospel  is  adapted  to  man  as  an  immortal  being.  That  it  be  so, 
I  need  not  now  pause  to  prove ;  our  sense  of  right  and  wrong,  our 
insuppressible  forebodings,  the  apparent  disorders  that  obtain  in  the 
moral  government  of  the  universe,  all  combine  to  fasten  on  our  minds 
the  truth  that  we  shall  be  called  to  a  final  and  definite  account  — 
"  Apart  from  which  consideration,"  (to  use  the  language  of  the  finest 
orator  of  his  day,)  "  our  life  is  a  shadow,  our  very  existence  itself  is  a 
riddle,  and  the  mysterious  events  that  obtain  in  the  world  around  us, 
are  as  incoherent  as  the  leaves  which  are  scattered  by  the  wind." 

But  what  reUef  can  be  afforded  to  the  inquiry  —  whether  it  be 
prompted  by  the  moody  spirit  of  unhallowed  scepticism,  or  the  tremb- 
ling anxiety  of  unsatisfied  conscience  —  Is  this  soul  of  mine  immortal, 
or  does  it  die  with  the  body  ?  Is  this  eye,  before  which  the  wide 
domain  of  nature  lies  spread  in  beautiful  perspective,  to  be  for  ever 
quenched  in  darkness  ?  Is  this  spirit,  that  seems  like  the  master  spirit 
of  this  lower  world,  that  can  penetrate  the  profoundest  with  the 
keenness  of  intuition,  and  embody  the  loftiest  in  the  colors  of  a  vivid 


GLORY   OF  THE    GOSPEL.  387 

imagination,  to  sink  into  gloom  and  annihilation,  and  to  be,  notwith- 
standing all  its  mental  appliances,  as  though  it  never  had  been  ?  To 
lull  these  anxious  inquiries  —  inquiries  suggested  by  the  loftiest  mind 
that  ever  descended  on  this  orb,  and  to  which  they  found  no  satisfac- 
tory reply  —  we  return  an  unhesitating  answer  :  "  the  glorious  gospel 
of  the  blessed  God."  There  we  learn  that  our  soul  is  as  immortal  as 
the  source  from  whence  it  came  :  that*  it  may  change  the  mode  of  its 
existence,  but  that  its  existence  can  never  close ;  that  it  will  pass 
through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  but  only  to  enter  its  mag- 
nificent residence,  where  it  will  find  objects  corresponding  to  its  nature, 
and  commensurate  with  its  duration  ;  and  that  which  pours  such  a  flood 
on  the  eternal  destination  of  man,  and  not  only  points  out  heaven,  but 
bestows  the  boon,  must  be  "  the  glorious  gospel  of  the  blessed  God." 

It  is  so,  in  the  last  place,  because  it  is  adapted  to  man  as  an  impo- 
tent being.  For  vast  and  important  as  are  the  blessings  to  which  I 
have  adverted,  if  they  were  bestowed  on  conditions  with  which  we 
could  not  possibly  comply,  the  exhibition  would  only  serve  to  mock  our 
misery  and  enhance  our  despair ;  we  should  only  be  in  the  predicament 
of  the  wretch  of  antiquity,  who  was  suspended  over  a  running  stream, 
which,  when  he  attempted  to  partake  of  it,  rushed  from  him,  and  left 
him  more  wretched  than  before.  The  blessings  to  which  I  have 
adverted,  are  not  more  exalted  in  their  nature  than  free  in  their  dispo- 
sal ;  they  are  without  money  and  without  price  :  and  to  be  without 
money  and  without  price  is  all  that  is  required  on  your  part  and 
mine,  in  order  to  receive  them  as  the  express  gift  of  heaven.  When 
our  first  parents  were  expelled  from  Paradise,  there  was  an  angel  with 
a  flaming  sword  placed  to  guard  the  entrance  to  that  Paradise,  and  to 
prevent  their  return.  But  here  is  no  angel.  I  recall  the  expression 
—  there  is  an  angel ;  but  instead  of  an  angel  of  justice  with  its  flam- 
ing sword,  it  is  the  angel  of  mercy ;  and  a  voice  is  heard  in  every 
passing  breeze,  exclaiming,  "  Ho,  every  one  that  thirsteth,  come  ye  to 
the  waters ;  and  he  that  hath  no  money,  come  ye,  buy,  and  eat ;  yea. 
come,  buy  wine  and  milk  without  money  and  without  price."  And  do 
you  wonder,  brethren,  that  our  feelings  are  kindled,  when  we  state  truths 
like  these  ?  It  is  an  impious  calumny  ;  and,  whatever  might  be  our 
feelings,  I  should  blush  for  myself  if  I  could  speak  on  such  a  subject, 
without  a  desire  of  speaking  thoughts  that  breathe,  and  in  words  that 
burn,  while  I  proclaim  to  guilty,  rebellious,  miserable,  dying,  immortal 
beings,  "  the  glorious  gospel  of  the  blessed  God." 

Thirdly,  it  is  "  the  glorious  Gospel  of  the  blessed  God,"  because  it 

IS  DESIGNED  TO  ACHIEVE  ULTIMATELY  THE  MOST  IMPORTANT  BLESSINGS 

TO  TEE  World  at  large. 


388  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

The  reign  of  sin  and  misery  is  not  to  exist  eternally  on  this  lower 
■world ;  it  is  to  be  brought  to  a  close.  Standing  on  the  mount  of  Scrip- 
ture prophecy,  and  looking  down  the  vale  of  time,  we  contemplate  a 
scene  such  as  earth  never  saw  ;  such  as  angels  stoop  down  to  see.  The 
language  of  beauty  and  blessedness  is  employed  to  depict,  as  with  the 
colors  of  heaven,  this  unearthly  scene.  The  effects  of  the  Savior's 
death  will  flow  down  the  tide  of  eternity,  will  increase  with  the  increas- 
ing gratitude  of  successive  generations,  and  be  prolonged,  even  after 
it  has  been  hymned  over  the  habitations  of  this  lower  world.  But 
what  is  to  produce  this  phange  ?  Will  philosophy  and  civilization 
accomplish  it  ?  The  experiment  has  been  tried :  for  four  thousand 
years  philosophy  had  its  reign  ;  and  it  is  a  well-attested  fact,  that,  at 
the  time  in  which  philosophy  shone  with  its  greatest  splendor,  in  which 
philosophers  themselves  were  men  of  the  highest  repute,  and  when  it 
was  the  pride  of  kings  and  emperors  to  patronize  them,  and  raise  them 
to  honor  —  at  that  very  time  men  were  sunk  in  the  depth  of  moral 
degradation ;  sable  night  spread  her  canopy  over  this  darkened  world, 
under  which  the  most  detestable  rights  were  perpetrated  in  rapid  suc- 
cession. A  by-stander  might  say,  "  Philosophy,  it  is  true,  instructed 
their  minds,  and  civilization  reformed  their  manners  ;  "  but  there  is  noth- 
ing that  can  stop  the  course  of  that  infernal  pit,  the  pestilence  of 
which  continually  rises  before  our  view,  and  produces  all  monstrous 
things.  But  the  gospel  will  come  into  our  view,  and  achieve  all  that, 
in  the  praises  of  which  poets  sung  and  martyrs  bled.  0,  what  visions 
of  glory  —  you  who  love  the  Savior,  and  desire  now  to  encircle  his 
brow  with  mediatorial  glory  —  what  visions  of  glory  rise  before  our 
view  !  In  the  prospect  of  those  scenes  we  discover  the  truth  :  eternal 
truth,  which  has  so  long  labored  through  the  darkness  of  an  eclipse, 
shall  shine  forth  in  its  own  splendor ;  and  men  will  acquire  a  knowledge 
of  subjects,  equally  important  in  their  nature,  and  imperishable  in  their 
duration.  "  Holiness  "  —  consisting  in  the  supreme  love  of  God,  and 
of  conformity  to  his  image  —  will  be  written  on  the  very  bridles  of  the 
horses,  and  mingle  with  the  commerce  of  the  nations.  The  heart  of  man 
—  now  a  fountain  from  which  all  fetid  streams  are  perpetually  pour- 
ing forth  —  will  then  give  birth  to  all  that  is  holy  in  principle,  and  bland 
in  disposition.  The  breath  of  heaven  has  originated  more  enlightened 
systems  of  civil  government  than  any  the  world  ever  discovered.  Then, 
indeed,  philosophy  shall  refine  the  minds,  and  civilization  reform  the 
manners  of  mankind :  but,  above  all,  the  gospel,  under  its  plastic 
influence,  shall  mould  this  world  into  such  a  scene  of  moral  beauty, 
that  the  Deity  shall  again  look  on  it  with  complacency,  and  pronounce 
that  all  is  very  good.     The  love  of  the  Savior  shall  warm  every  heart, 


GLORY   OF   THE   GOSPEL.  389 

and  dwell  on  every  tongue  — no^v  rising  in  solitary  strains  of  gratitude, 
noiv  combining  in  hymns  of  praise  —  till  it  shall  roll  through  creation, 
and  the  very  thunder  of  God  awaken  the  universe  to  new  and  raptu- 
rous delight :  the  dwellers  in  the  valleys  and  on  the  rocks  shout  to  each 
other  ;  the  distant  hills  and  mountain-tops  catch  the  swelling  joy,  till 
nation  after  nation  join  in  the  choir,  and  earth  rolls  the  rapturous  song 
around.  Brethren,  these  are  scenes  which  we  are  warranted  to  con- 
template, through  the  medium  of  the  prophecies  of  the  gospel ;  and 
that  which  the  prophecy  announces,  the  truth  shall  achieve  ;  and, 
under  the  influence  of  this  "  glorious  gospel,"  this  new  and  better 
order  of  things  shall  surely  arise. 

I  must  now  come  to  the  concluding  part  of  the  subject,  to  deduce 
SUCH  Remarks  as  its  Nature  will  suggest. 

First  of  all  —  for  I  shall  be  very  simple  and  obvious  in  the  inferences 
I  shall  draw  —  I  remind  you  both  of  the  jjrivileges  and  the  obligations 
with  ivhich  you  are  invested  who  possess  this  gospel.     May  I  not  take 
up  the  language  of  benediction  in  this  assembly  this  evening,  and  say, 
"  Blessed  are  your  eyes,  for  they  see,  and  your  ears,  for  they  hear. 
For  verily  I  say  unto  you,  that  many  prophets  and  righteous  men  have 
desired  to  see  those  things  which  ye  see,  and  have  not  seen  them  ;  and 
to  hear  those  things  which  ye  hear,  and  have  not  heard  them."     You 
are  guilty,  and  you  know  the  medium  of  pardon:  you  are  unholy,  and  you 
know  the  medium  of  sanctification  :  you  are  miserable,  and  you  know 
where  to  flee  for  comfort :  there  is  no  form  of  evil  to  which  you  are 
exposed,  for  which  there  is  not  a  commensurate  remedy  in  the  "  glori- 
ous gospel ;  "  and  you  are  intrusted  with  privileges  above  millions. 
O,  think  of  them.     Your  privileges  and  your  obligations  keep  pace 
with  each  other  ;  and  to  whom  much  is  given,  much  will  be  required. 
What  if  this  evening  I  were  empowered  to  stand  in  the  midst  of  the 
dense  population  of  India  or  China  —  what  would  be  the  emotion  of 
some  broken-hearted  wretch  if  he  could  have   caught  the   sounds  to 
which  perhaps  some  of  you  have  listened  this  evening  with  unconcern  I 
And  what  if,  still  further,  I  had  been  commissioned  to  traverse  the 
hills,  and  valleys,  and  plains,  of  those  lands,  and  pronounce  to  its 
wretched  inhabitants  the  invitations  of  that  gospel  to  which  you  have 
listened  :  would  they  not  rise  from  their  abodes  of  wretchedness,  and 
make   the  very  vault  of  perdition  to  echo  with  the  song  of  gratitude 
and  praise  ?     Remember  that  you  possess  that,  this  evening,  for  which 
the  lost  in  hell  would  give  millions  of  worlds.     By  this  gospel  you  will 
be  saved :  by  this  gospel  you  will  be   condemned.     "  Hell,"  said  a 
pious  writer,  "is  truth  seen  too  late."     Be  careful,  I  beseech  you, 


U90  THE  ENGLISH  TULPIT. 

half-hearted,  undecided,  imiicnitent,  perishing  hearers  of  the  gospel ; 
lest  jou  pluck  yourselves,  with  a  suicidal  hand,  by  your  own  impeni- 
tence, from  the  elevation  you  now  occupy ;  and  smk,  like  Lucifer, 
never  to  rise  again. 

Secondly,  we  infer  from  this  subject  how  pitiable  must  be  the  condi- 
tion of  those  inhabitants  of  the  earth  to  whom  this  gospel  has  never 
been  sent !  Ignorance  there  has  no  guide,  misery  no  asylum,  despair 
no  hope ;  society  itself  is  only  a  scene  of  wretchedness,  where  we 
behold,  in  awful  combination,  all  that  is  ferocious  in  aggression  on  the 
one  side,  and  all  that  is  ineffectual  or  timid  in  compliance  on  the  other. 
But  it  is  to  man  individually  that  the  situation  is  most  terrible,  View 
that  hoary  savage.  He  sees  about  him  the  scenes  of  his  youth  ;  his 
hands  are  stained  with  blood ;  he  sinks  at  once  under  an  accumulated 
load  of  crimes  and  years.  He  would  look  to  the  grave  for  succor  ; 
but  alas !  all  there  is  dark  —  the  darkness  of  the  shadow  of  death. 
See  that  poor  inhabitant  of  Hindostan.  He  resorts  to  the  most  detes- 
table orgies  to  allay  the  throbbings  of  a  guilty  conscience  :  he  offei-s 
"  the  fruit  of  his  body  for  the  sin  of  his  soul."  And  what  can  meet 
their  case  ?  They  are  wretched  here,  and  eternity  to  them  is  only  a 
dark  and  dreary  scene,  where  they  are  mocked  with  the  unreal  illu- 
sions of  a  vain  imagination,  or  appalled  by  the  spectres  of  guilt  and 
sin.  Who  can  meet  their  case  ?  In  this  fearful  condition  they  are 
passing  on  from  what  is  temporal  to  what  is  eternal ;  and,  as  they 
vanish  from  our  view,  we  seem  to  hear  the  shout  of  anguish,  or  the 
sullen  groan  of  despair.  What  can  meet  their  case  ?  Why,  brethren, 
you  possess  that  which  will  meet  their  case,  which  will  enlighten  their 
darkness,  comfort  them  in  their  sorrow,  and  pour  the  very  radiance  of 
heaven  over  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death. 

Now,  I  would  ask,  while  you  behold  millions  of  your  fellow-beings, 
allied  to  you  by  the  common  sympathies  of  nature,  perishing  in  the 
situation  to  which  I  have  adverted,  and  you  possess  that  Avhich  will 
meet  the  urgency  of  their  case  —  can  you  lie  down  on  the  bed  of 
repose,  and  slumber  unconcerned  and  unaffected  by  the  piercing  shrieks 
that  arise  from  the  agonized  hearts  of  perishing  millions  ?  Remember 
that  he  who  refuses  to  extend  the  key  of  knowledge  to  those  who  are 
in  ignorance,  is,  as  Johnson  has  said,  guilty  of  all  the  crimes  that  igno- 
rance may  produce  ;  in  the  same  way  that  he  who  extinguishes  a  light- 
house, would  be  guilty  of  the  horrors  of  the  shipwreck.  You  possess 
the  means  by  which  this  gospel  may  be  extended.  Institutions  have 
arisen  so  vast  as  to  embrace  empires,  and  yet  so  minute  as  to  receive 
the  smallest  contribution  that  may  be  poured  into  its  treasury.  We 
invite,  then,  young  and  old,  master  and  servant,  rich  and  poor,  literate 


WORTH    OF   THE   SOUL.  391 

ami  illiterate  —  we  invite  you  all  to  link  every  energy  of  your  nature 
with  the  cause,  and  to  devote  yourselves,  at  once,  with  the  firmness  of 
a  j)rinciple,  and  the  ardor  of  a  passion,  to  those  big  and  busy  enter- 
prises which  are  designed  to  tell  on  the  moral  destiny  of  a  lost  and 
ruined  world. 


SERMOlA^  XXXII. 

THE     AVORTH     OF     THE     SOUL. 
BY  REV.   TIMOTHY   GIBSON. 

"  What  shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul  V  "  —  JLvtt.  xvi.  26. 

Whether  man  is  a  merely  material  being,  formed  only  to  eat  and 
drink,  to  live  a  few  years  on  earth,  and  then  to  perish  for  ever  in  the 
dust,  or  whether  he  is  the  partaker  of  a  higher  nature,  and  formed  for 
a  more  exalted  state  of  being,  are  questions  of  vital  importance  — 
questions,  which  deeply  involve  our  character  in  time,  and  our  pros- 
pects for  eternity.  If,  in  man,  be  seen  only  a  material  being,  whose 
existence  is  confined  within  the  limits  of  threescore  years  and  ten,  and 
who  has  neither  happiness  to  hope,  nor  misery  to  fear,  beyond  the 
grave — religion  is  only,  as  infidehty  has  represented  it  to  be,  a  system 
of  error,  encouraging  but  by  delusive  hopes,  and  intimidating  by  super- 
stitious fears ;  imposing  restraints,  to  which  you  are  bound  by  no  tie 
to  submit ;  and  enjoining  as  duties,  what  you  are  under  no  obligation  to 
perform.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  if  in  man  is  seen  an  immortal  crea- 
ture—  a  candidate  for  the  skies;  if,  not  only  death,  but  judgment 
awaits  him ;  if  everlasting  happiness  or  misery  must  be  his  doom  — 
then,  religion  is  the  most  important  subject  that  can  engage  his  powers  ; 
and  diligently  to  learn  its  truths,  and  patiently  to  obey  its  commands, 
must  be,  at  once,  his  interest  and  his  duty.  ^ 

The  worth  of  the  human  soul,  I  propose,  in  dependence  upon  the 
help  of  Divine  grace,  to  establish  on  the  general  principle  of  its  im- 
mortality. And  give  me,  I  beseech  you,  your  careful  attention,  and 
your  earnest  prayers,  that  God,  who  alone  bestoweth  wisdom,  and  out 
of  whose  mouth  alone  come  knowledge  and  understanding,  may  afford 
us  that  assistance  which  we  require  to  our  profitable  consideration  of 
the  subject. 

Of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  we  have  three  kinds  of  proof:  natu- 
ral, moral,  and  Divine. 


892  THE   ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

I.  Natural.  The  iminaterial  nature  of  the  human  mind,  furnishes 
so  strong  a  proof  of  its  immortality,  as  to  have  forced  one  of  the  most 
subtle  advocates  of  infidelity  to  acknowledge,  that  if  the  soul  be, 
indeed,  distinct  from  matter,  the  inference  can  scarcely  be  avoided, 
that  it  is  immortal !  Let  us  then  shortly  examine  whether  we  are, 
or  are  not,  elevated  in  the  scale  of  being,  above  the  earth  we  tread 
upon,  and  the  gross  materials  of  which  these  earthly  bodies  are  made 
—  whether  we  are,  or  are  not,  by  the  original  constitution  of  our 
nature,  the  subjects  of  immortaUty. 

It  is  a  principle,  which  must  necessarily  be  admitted  as  the  ground- 
work of  all  reasoning — that,  from  nothing,  nothing  can  ai'ise  ;  and 
that  for  every  effect  there  must  exist  a  sufficient  cause.  It  is  the 
province  of  reason  and  of  philosophy  to  trace  out  effects  ;  to  explore 
the  source  from  whence  they  proceed,  and  to  ascertain  whether  the 
cause  which  is  assigned  them  be  equal  to  their  production.  Were  an. 
idolater  to  inform  you,  that  his  god  of  wood  or  stone  had  often  heard 
his  prayer,  alleviated  his  sufferings,  and  supplied  his  wants,  you  would 
reject  his  testimony,  and  pity  his  weakness  ;  because  your  own  under- 
standing would  convince  you,  that  a  mere  block  of  wood,  or  stone, 
however  elegantly  formed,  or  beautifully  ornamented,  yet,  being  inani- 
mate, could  not  hear  his  supphcations,  or  afford  him  relief. 

A  cause  like  this,  you  would  perceive,  must  necessarily  be  unequal 
to  the  production  of  such  effects :  the  testimony,  therefore,  however 
confidently  given,  you  would  at  once  reject. 

In  man,  we  find  perception,  consciousness,  thought,  and  reason  ;  and 
the  question  presents  itself  to  the  inquiring  mind  —  "  Do  these  proper- 
ties result  from  matter ;  or,  have  they  a  distinct,  an  independent,  an 
immaterial  cause  ?  "  The  existence  of  the  properties  themselves,  is 
unquestionable  ;  there  must  therefore  exist  some  substance,  or  being, 
from  which,  as  their  cause,  these  effects  proceed ;  and,  as  we  have 
before  remarked,  it  is  the  province  of  reason  and  philosophy  to  search 
out  this  cause,  and  to  ascertain,  as  nearly  as  possible,  its  nature. 

Give  to  the  man  of  science  any  portion  of  matter,  and  let  him 
reduce  it  to  its  first  principles  ;  does  he  find  any  one  of  them  the  sub- 
ject of  thought  or  reason  ?  Impossible.  Let  him  examine  the  nature 
of  the  electric  fluid,  to  the  instrumentality  of  which,  as  some  philoso- 
phers seem  to  have  taught,  the  visible  creation  owes  all  its  variety  of 
texture  and  form.  Does  reason  reside  here  ?  No.  Let  him  investi- 
gate the  nervous  system  in  the  human  body,  with  which  sensation  is 
unquestionably  connected.  Do  the  nerves  possess  thinking  or  reason- 
ing powers  ?  Assuredly  not.  The  inevitable  conclusion,  therefore,  is, 
that  these  powers  are  neither  essential  properties  of  matter,  nor  in- 


WORTH   OF   TUE   SOUL.  393 

herent  in  any  material  elements,  within  the  compass  of  our  research. 
And  it  would  bo  absurd  to  suppose,  that  the  effect  can  rise  above  its 
cause,  since  that  would  be  to  state,  that  a  thing  might  be  produced  by 
a  cause  unequal  to  its  production ;  or,  that  the  mind  of  man  has  no 
adequate  cause  of  existence. 

If,  however  these  absurdities  are  too  evident  to  be  admitted  ;  if  man 
possess  thinking  and  reasoning  powers ;  if  these  powers  are  neither 
essential  properties  of  matter,  nor  inherent  in  any  material  element 
within  our  knowledge  ;  and  if  no  union  of  elements  can  give  a  power 
essentially  different  from  those  powers,  which  those  elements  separately 
possess  —  then,  the  human  mind  is  produced  by  no  modification  of 
matter  ;  but  must,  in  its  nature,  be  immaterial  and  spiritual. 

The  intellectual  powers  of  man  furnish  a  second  proof,  that  his  soul 
is  immaterial.  We  have  already  stated,  that  no  effect  can  rise  higher 
than  its  cause  ;  in  illustration  of  which  remark,  it  may  be  added,  that 
the  motion  given  to  an  inanimate  body,  can  only  be  in  exact  propor- 
tion to  the  force  employed.  And  if  no  excellency  can  be  communi- 
cated which  is  not  possessed,  it  will  assuredly  follow,  that  a  material 
mind  must  be  incapable  of  performing  a  spiritual  act,  or  of  perceiving 
an  immaterial  object.  But  the  human  mind  does  perform  acts  purely 
spiritual ;  and  does  perceive  objects  purely  immaterial ;  therefore  it 
manifestly  follows,  that,  in  its  nature,  it  must  be  immaterial  also. 

To  think,  to  understand,  to  reason,  are  actions,  which  it  is  impossi- 
ble for  mere  matter  to  perform.  To  see  the  beauty  of  goodness,  and 
to  feel  the  force  of  moral  obligation,  are  also  the  peculiar  prerogatives 
of  man.  Truth  and  falsehood,  justice  and  oppression,  benevolence  and 
cruelty,  appear  to  him  in  widely  different  colors,  and  excite  in  his 
mind  essentially  different  feelings.  He  rises  higher ;  he  forms  con- 
ceptions of  angels  and  spirits  —  of  the  perfections,  and  character,  and 
government  of  God  ;  he  prays  and  praises,  reverences  and  adores  ; 
rejoices  in  Jehovah's  favor,  and  fears  Jehovah's  wrath.  Here,  also, 
we  discover  powers  which  mere  matter  cannot  possess  ;  and,  therefore, 
powers,  which  matter  can  never  communicate. 

But  an  objection  against  these  conclusions  is  sometimes  raised,  from 
the  painful  effects  produced  on  the  mind  by  the  weaknesses  and  dis- 
eases of  the  body.  "  Where,"  says  the  materialist,  "  shall  we  find 
proofs  of  the  mind's  independence  of  the  bodily  structui'C  ?  Of  tliat 
mind,  which,  like  its  clay  tabernacle,  is  infantile  in  the  child,  debilita- 
ted in  disease,  enfeebled  in  old  age,  and  annihilated  by  death  ?  "  This 
objection  however,  great  as  it  appears  at  first  sight,  is  not  insurmount- 
able. Though  we  allow  that  the  mind,  during  its  continuance  in  the 
present  world,  is  united  to  the  body,  and  is  so  far  confined  to  it,  that 


894  THE  ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

its  senses  are  the  only  medium  through  which  impressions  are  commu- 
nicated from  surrounding  objects,  and  its  organs  the  only  instruments 
by  which  the  mind  here  carries  on  its  visible  operations,  yet  this  by  no 
means  proves  it  to  be  material ;  and  the  objection  alluded  to  vanishes 
immediately,  when  we  reflect,  that  the  ideas  which  the  mind  forms  of 
objects,  must,  necessarily,  be  correct  or  incorrect,  in  proportion  to  the 
perfection  or  imperfection  of  the  senses  ;  and  that  its  operations  must 
be  affected,  in  some  degree,  according  to  the  state  of  the  brain.  But 
the  senses  and  the  brain  are  not  therefore  the  mind  ;  nor  do  they  on 
this  account  produce  it. 

This  immateriality  of  the  mind  deprives  the  materialist  of  all  positive 
evidence  for  its  perishableness  or  its  death  !  it  furnishes,  if  not  abso- 
lute proof,  at  least,  a  strong  probability  of  its  immortality  ;  and  also 
lays  a  firm  foundation,  on  which  other  proofs  of  this  important  fact  may 
rest.  Immateriality  seems  to  imply  a  natural  power  of  perpetual 
duration,  as  a  consequence  of  exemption  from  all  causes  of  decay. 
Dissolution  is  only  the  separation  of  the  constituent  parts  of  a  com- 
pound body  ;  and  it  is  effected  either  by  some  inward  tendency  in  the 
nature  of  that  body,  or  by  some  outward  violence  employed  ;  but  an 
immaterial  substance,  being  formed  of  no  union  of  material  elements, 
cannot  be  the  subject  of  inward  decays,  but  must  preserve  the  identity 
of  its  nature  for  ever.  No  means,  short  of  an  annihilating  act  by  him 
who  gave  it  being,  can  terminate  its  existence  ;  and  as  in  this  exemp- 
tion from  inward  corruption  and  from  outward  violence,  we  have  an 
apparent  assurance  that  such  an  act  will  not  be  performed,  the  con- 
clusion seems  just  —  that  the  human  soul  is  not  the  natural  subject  of 
dissolution,  but  was  designed  by  its  Creator  to  enjoy  an  endless  life. 

II.  Of  this  immortahty  we  have  proofs  of  a  moral  nature. 

1.  The  first  of  these  is  derived  from  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of 
God.  It  is  the  province  of  wisdom,  to  adapt  the  means  used  to  the 
ends  proposed  ;  and  of  goodness,  to  proportion  happiness  to  the  powers 
of  the  object  for  whom  that  happiness  is  designed.  The  Creator  of 
the  world,  being  infinitely  wise,  the  means  employed  by  him  must,  with 
the  utmost  exactness,  be  fitted  to  the  ends  proposed ;  and  the  powers 
of  the  beings  he  has  formed,  must  be  precisely  adapted  to  the  proper 
exercise  of  those  powers,  and  to  the  final  destiny  of  the  beings  them- 
selves ;  and,  as  he  is  infinitely  good,  provision  must  be  made  by  him 
for  the  supply  of  every  desire  he  has  implanted.  Whether  we  look  at 
beasts  or  birds,  fishes  or  insects,  all  are  furnished  with  organs  exactly 
adapted  to  the  functions  they  are  intended  to  perform,  and  to  the 


WORTH   OF   THE   SOUL.  396 

sphere  in  -which  these  creatures  are  designed  to  move.  Nor  is  there 
either  defect  or  superfluity  observable  throughout  the  whole. 

Man,  we  have  said,  possesses  thinking  and  reasoning  powers,  by 
which  he  understands  truth  and  obtains  knowledge  ;  and  even  in  the 
present  state,  much  is  placed  within  the  limits  of  these  powers.  Look- 
ing upon  the  world  in  which  he  is  placed,  he  contemplates  the  wonder- 
ful charm  of  being  carried  on,  by  almost  imperceptible  links,  through 
the  vegetable  to  the  brute,  and  through  the  brute  to  the  rational  crea- 
tion :  he  searches  out  the  order  of  parts  apparently  discordant  and 
detached ;  refers  to  its  proper  class,  each  moving  creature  that  hath 
life,  and  each  plant  that  adorns  the  garden  or  the  field  ;  he  investigates 
the  nature  of  things,  and  renders  subservient  to  his  own  interests,  his 
health  or  his  comfort,  water  and  air,  light  and  heat.  He  calls  the 
microscope  to  his  aid,  and  discovers  in  every  leaf,  in  every  drop  of 
water,  and  in  every  grain  of  sand,  beings,  diminutive  indeed,  but 
which,  by  the  perfection  of  their  life  and  powers,  furnish  additional 
proof  of  the  wisdom  and  beneficence  of  God.  Rising  above  the  earth, 
he  tells  the  number  of  the  stars,  explains  the  laws  of  the  planetary 
worlds,  and  calculates,  with  amazing  exactness,  the  periods  of  their 
varied  revolutions.  Passing  from  nature  to  nature's  God,  he  beholds 
in  the  magnitude  and  grandeur  of  the  objects  that  surround  him,  the 
majesty  and  power  of  God  ;  in  their  variety,  fitness  and  order,  his  infi- 
nite wisdom  ;  and  in  the  provision  made  for  the  supply  of  the  returning 
wants  of  every  living  thing,  his  providential  care  and  goodness :  and 
passing  from  nature  to  revelation,  he  finds  fuller  manifestations  of  the 
Divine  will.  Extensive,  however,  as  man's  present  knowledge  may 
be,  yet  compared  with  what  remains  to  be  known,  it  is  as  nothing. 
There  are  yet  innumerable  regions  which  man  has  never  traversed,  and 
mines  of  inexhaustible  richness  which  he  has  never  penetrated.  In 
the  nature  and  reason  of  things,  in  the  works  and  ways  of  God,  in  the 
dispensations  of  Providence  and  the  plan  of  redemption,  he  sees  much 
that  is  veiled  in  partial  or  entire  obscurity,  and  which  yet  escapes  his 
grasp.  He  is  here  but  in  the  dawn  of  being  ;  he  sees  only  in  part ; 
not  indeed  because  his  powers  are  unequal  to  the  task  of  comprehend- 
ing any  more,  but  because  he  "  sees  through  a  glass  darkly,"  because, 
though  the  intellectual  eye  is  strong  in  many  cases,  the  communicating 
medium  is  dim  or  defective. 

And  has  Infinite  Wisdom  given  these  capacities,  yet  at  the  same 
time  resolved  that  they  shall  never  arrive  at  perfection  ?  Has  Infinite 
Wisdom  furnished  the  immaterial  vessel  with  powers  to  explore  the 
vast  ocean  of  eternity,  yet  at  the  same  time,  decreed  that  its  voyage 
shall  be  confined  to  the  narrow  straits  of  this  short  and  uncertain  life  ? 


396  THE  ENGLISH   PULPIT. 

Impossible  !  Divine  Wisdom  must  adapt  the  means  to  the  end  ;  and 
adjust  the  powers  of  beings  to  the  purposes  for  which  those  powers 
were  suited,  and  to  the  sphere  in  which  those  beings  were  designed  to 
move. 

2.  The  second  proof,  of  this  class,  is  derived  from  the  moral  powers 
of  the  mind.  That  such  powers  are  possessed,  we  have  already  seen ; 
but,  alas !  how  low  is  the  degree  of  perfection  to  which  they  here 
attain !  Passing  by  the  thousands,  who  never  emerge  from  the  dark- 
ness and  pollution  of  sensuality,  nor  burst  the  bonds  of  appetite  ;  who 
never  seek  to  attain  the  perfection  of  their  nature,  till  the  sun  of  life 
is  on  the  decline,  or  about  to  set ;  and  turning  our  attention  to  the 
wisest  and  best  of  men  to  be  found  in  the  present  state ;  after  all  their 
conflicts  with  inward  depravity,  with  an  alluring  world,  and  a  tempting 
enemy,  and  after  all  the  conquests  which,  aided  by  Divine  grace,  they 
have  achieved,  how  low,  in  reality,  are  their  acquirements !  How 
defective  their  piety  towards  their  God !  How  weak  their  sense  of 
obligation  to  their  Creator  and  Preserver !  How  little  their  reverence 
for  the  authority,  their  gratitude  for  the  mercies,  their  delight  in  the 
favor,  and  their  obedience  to  the  will  of  their  heavenly  Father !  In  a 
word,  how  imperfect  their  conformity  to  the  law  and  perfections  of 
their  God  !  A  voice,  in  every  Christian's  breast,  echoes  the  language 
of  an  apostle,  "  Not  as  though  I  had  already  attained,  either  were 
already  perfect ;  I  count  not  myself  to  have  apprehended." 

Impelled  by  the  desires  which  the  Spirit  of  holiness  has  implanted 
in  his  breast,  the  believer  "  forgets  the  things  that  are  behind,  and 
reaches  forward  to  those  things  which  are  before."  He  longs  for  a 
state  more  congenial  to  the  best  wishes  of  his  heart ;  a  state,  in  which, 
irregular  appetites  shall  no  more  corrupt  the  mind ;  in  which,  tempta- 
tions shall  no  more  solicit  to  sin.  "  I  shall  be  satisfied,"  he  cries, 
when  I  awake  up  in  thy  likeness."  And  has  the  God  of  infinite  good- 
ness and  wisdom  fitted  his  intelligent  creature  for  such  advancement  in 
holiness,  such  high  degrees  of  excellence,  and  will  he  allow  no  sufficient 
opportunities  for  the  attainment  of  them  ?  Yes !  The  Wisdom,  that 
gave  those  powers,  designed  their  perfection  :  they  shall,  therefore,  be 
transplanted  to  a  happier  soil,  and  placed  under  more  genial  skies, 
where  they  shall  bloom  as  the  rose  of  Sharon  ;  shall  flourish  in  per- 
petual fragrance  and  beauty. 

3.  The  last  of  this  sort  of  proofs  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  I 
shall  mention,  is  founded  on  the  acknowledgment  which  has  been 
made,  by  men  of  all  ages  and  nations,  of  their  decided  conviction  of 
the  truth  of  this  all-important  doctrine. 

Whether  we  turn  our  attention  to  ancient  or  modern  times,  to  bar- 


WORTH  OF  THE  SOUL.  397 

barous  or  to  civilized  countries,  those  have  always  been  found,  -who 
have  received  the  doctrine  of  the  soul's  immortality.  T\yo  striking 
instances,  from  heathen  writers  of  antiquity,  shall  be  given. 

Zenophon,  the  Grecian  historian,  represents  Cyrus,  as  thus  address- 
ing his  sons,  before  his  death :  —  "Do  not  imagine,  that  when  I  leave 
you  I  shall  cease  to  exist.  For  even  when  I  was  yet  with  you,  my 
spirit  you  could  not  discern  ;  but  that  it  animated  this  body,  you  were 
fully  persuaded  by  the  actions  which  I  performed.  Be  assured,  it  will 
continue  the  same,  though  you  see  it  not.  I  can  never  believe  that 
man  lives  only  while  he  is  in  the  body,  and  dies  when  that  is  dissolved ; 
or,  that  the  soul  loses  all  intelligence  on  being  separated  from  an  unin- 
telligent mass  of  earth ;  but,  rather,  that  on  being  liberated  from  all 
mixture  with  the  body,  pure  and  entire,  it  enters  upon  its  true,  intel- 
lectual existence  !  " 

The  great  Roman  org,tor  represents  Cato  thus  speaking  to  two 
friends  :  —  "As  long  as  we  are  shut  up  in  this  dungeon  of  sense,  we 
have  to  toil  through  the  painful  and  necessary  drudgery  of  life,  and  to 
accomplish  the  laborious  task  of  a  hireling.  The  celestial  spirit  is,  as 
it  were,  depressed,  and  plunged  into  the  mire  of  this  world  —  a  state 
repugnant  to  its  true  nature  and  eternal  duration.  Oh  !  glorious  day  ! 
when  I  shall  be  admitted  into  the  assembly  of  the  wise  and  good ;  ^ 
when  I  shall  make  an  eternal  escape  from  this  sink  of  corruption,  this 
den  of  folly !  " 

If  such  were  the  expectations  of  unenlightened  heathens,  how  much 
more  clearly  are  life  and  immortality  brought  to  light  by  the  gospel ! 

III.  This  is  the  third  source,  from  whence  we  would  draw  some 
proofs  of  the  soul's  immortality. 

The  oracles  of  God  expressly  teach  the  immaterial  nature,  the  inde- 
pendent existence,  and  the  immortal  life  of  the  soul. 

The  sacred  historian,  in  the  account  given  of  the  creation  of  man, 
has  strongly  marked  the  communication  of  a  principle  or  nature  dis- 
tinct from  matter,  and  different  from  the  gifts  bestowed  on  the  various 
orders  of  beings  which  had  been  previously  formed.  In  the  creation 
of  them  Jehovah  is  represented  as  but  speaking,  and  causing  it  to  be 
done.  "  Let  the  waters,  or  the  earth,  bring  forth  the  moving  creature 
that  hath  life,"  is  the  command  given,  and  creatures  possessing  animal 
life,  Avith  all  its  instincts  and  powers,  present  themselves. 

But  is  man  to  be  formed  ?  —  the  three  persons  of  the  Deity  are 
called  into  solemn  deliberation.  "  Let  us  make  man  in  our  own  image, 
after  our  likeness,"  is  the  extraordinary  counsel  taken,  and  the  resolu- 
tion adopted.     Is  man  to  be  brought  into  existence  ?     Strongly  to 


398  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

mark  the  communication  of  a  distinct  and  superior  nature,  God  liim- 
self  "  breathes  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life,  and  he  becomes  a 
living  soul."  A  nature  is  communicated,  superior  to  that  possessed 
by  any  other  creature  of  earthly  origin,  and  more  nearly  resembling 
the  Divine :  a  spirit  is  given,  possessing  thinking  and  reflecting 
powers. 

In  the  language  of  holy  confidence  adopted  by  the  Psalmist  —  "Thou 
shalt  guide  me  with  thy  counsel,  and  afterward  receive  me  to  glory," 
we  see  an  expectation  entertained  of  an  admission  to  the  realms  of 
everlasting  light,  at  the  close  of  the  present  life.  The  wise  man  con- 
cludes his  striking  description  of  the  infirmities  of  age  and  the  decays 
of  hfe,  with  that  solemn  declaration  —  "  Then  shall  the  dust  return 
to  the  earth  as  it  was ;  and  the  spirit  shall  return  unto  God  who  gave 
it."  Two  distinct  parts  of  man  are  here  mentioned ;  and  widely  dif- 
ferent statements  are  made  respecting  them.  The  body  is  called 
"  dust,"  and  it  is  affirmed,  it  "  shall  return  to  the  earth  as  it  was  ; " 
formed  of  material  elements,  to  those  elements  it  shall  again  return. 
But  the  mind  is  styled  "  the  spirit ;  "  and  in  direct  reference  to  .the 
account  given  by  Moses  of  the  creation  of  man  it  is  said,  it  "  shall 
return  unto  God  who  gave  it."  It  shall  pass,  at  the  death  of  the 
body,  into  another  state  of  existence,  and  shall  be  appointed  by  its 
Maker  and  Judge,  to  dwell  in  pai-adise  with  "  the  spirits  of  just  men 
made  perfect,"  or  (since  the  righteous  alone  can  dwell  in  that  king- 
dom of  holiness,)  to  suffer  the  miseries  of  the  lost  forever. 

The  same  doctrine  was  taught  by  the  incarnate  Son  of  God.  When 
arming  the  minds  of  his  disciples  and  apostles  against  the  assaults, 
which  he  knew  that  they  would  have  to  sustain  from  the  power  and 
mahce  of  the  enemies  of  his  religion,  he  said  —  "  Fear  not  them  who 
kill  the  body,  but  are  not  able  to  kill  the  soul ;  but  rather  fear  him, 
who  is  able  to  destroy  both  soul  and  body  in  hell."  Here,  also,  two 
separate  parts  of  man  are  clearly  pointed  out ;  and  very  different 
declarations  are  made  respecting  them.  Of  the  body,  the  Savior 
states  —  "  men  may  kill  it."  Material  in  its  nature,  it  is  liable  to 
decay ;  and  by  disease,  or  violence  may  be  deprived  of  life.  And 
were  the  soul  nothing  more  than  animated  matter,  and  dependent  for 
its  existence  on  the  body,  the  same  stroke  that  kills  the  body,  would 
necessarily  terminate  also  the  existence  of  the  soul ;  and,  at  death,  the 
whole  man  must  die.  This,  however,  the  Savior  affirms  not  to  be  the 
case :  "  men  cannot  kill  the  soul."  The  soul  must,  therefore,  be 
immaterial  in  its  nature,  and  must  not  depend,  for  existence,  on  any 
mere  bodily  powers. 

"  We  know,"  says  the  apostle,  "  that  if  the  earthly  house  of  this  tab- 


WOllTH   OF   lUE  SOUL.  399 

emacle  were  dissolved,  wc  have  a  building  of  God ;  a  house,  not  made 
■with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens."  "  Therefore  we  are  always  con- 
fident, knowing  that  whilst  we  are  at  home  in  the  body,  we  are  absent 
from  the  Lord  ;  we  are  confident,  I  say,  and  willing  rather  to  be  absent 
from  the  body,  and  present  with  the  Lord." 

Such  are  some  of  the  arguments,  in  proof  of  the  all-important  doc- 
trine of  the  immortality  of  the  soul  of  man.  It  only  remains,  that  we 
make  a  short  application  of  the  subject  to  ourselves.  And  in  doing 
this,  I  beseech  every  one  of  you  to  put  to  himself,  solemnly  and  ear- 
nestly, the  question  contained  in  the  text  —  "  What  shall  a  man  give 
in  exchange  for  his  soul  ?  " 

What  can  redeem  the  immortal  spirit  ?  —  a  spirit  exposed,  in  conse- 
quence of  its  guilt,  to  banishment  from  the  presence  of  God,  from  the 
glories  of  his  kingdom,  from  the  joys  of  his  right  hand  ;  and  doomed 
to  eternal  wretchedness  and  despair  ?  Were  the  whole  material  crea- 
tion offered  as  the  purchase  of  its  redemption,  how  inadequate  would 
be  the  ransom^  how  disproportionate  the  price  ! 

Each  of  you,  my  brethren,  possesses  a  soul  thus  invaluable  ;  a  soul, 
which  must  live  in  hapiness  or  misery,  in  heaven  or  hell,  for  ever. 
This  fact,  the  careless  and  thoughtless  amongst  you  may  disregard  or 
disbeheve.  Be  it  known  to  you,  however,  that  if  a  God  of  omnipo- 
tence, of  justice,  and  of  grace,  has  endued  you  with  immortal  souls, 
your  neglect  or  disbelief  will  neither  alter  their  nature,  nor  extinguish 
their  being.  Enlightened  and  warmed  by  the  mid-day  sun,  you  may 
shut  your  eyes ;  and  then  attempt  to  deny,  or  profess  to  doubt,  his 
existence;  but  such  denials,  or  pretended  doubts,  destroy  him  not  — 
they  shroud  not  tJie  heavens  in  darkness,  they  consign  not  the  earth 
to  eternal  dreariness. 

The  poor  infidel,  who,  in  the  hour  of  death,  stretched  out  his  impious 
arm,  and  exclaimed  —  "  I  will  not  die  !  "  became,  notwithstanding,  the 
prey  of  the  last  enemy,  and  found,  when  too  late,  that  neither  his  dis- 
belief nor  his  power,  could  withstand  the  purpose  of  the  Almighty. 
You,  too,  may  neglect  or  disbelieve,  but  you  cannot  alter  your  immor- 
tality. 'You  may  convert  the  glory  of  your  nature  into  an  object  of 
alarm  ;  and  turn  Heaven's  greatest  blessing,  into  your  heaviest  cm-se. 
You  may  ruin,  but  you  cannot  annihilate,  the  soul.  Immortality  — 
a  resurrection  —  a  judgment  day,  are  appointed  to  you  by  that  God 
whose  eye  you  cannot  escape,  whose  purpose  you  cannot  frustrate,  and 
whose  holiness  requires  that  (as  his  word  has  threatened)  "  the  wicked 
shall  be  turned  into  hell,  and  all  the  nations  that  forget  God." 

The  question  returns,  with  double  force,  "  What  will  you  give  in 


400  THE   ENGLISH  PULPIT. 

exchange  for  your  soul  ?  "  Pensioners  on  the  Divine  bounty,  you  have 
nothing  to  offer ;  and  had  you  ten  thousand  worlds,  they  would  not  fur- 
nish a  sufficient  price.     It  cost  more  to  redeem  the  soul. 

But,  blessed  be  the  eternal  name,  no  price  is  asked  for  you.  That 
God,  against  whom  you  have  so  often,  and  so  ungratefully  rebelled ; 
whose  holiness  you  have  offended,  whose  majesty  you  have  insulted, 
whose  goodness  you  have  abused,  and  whose  displeasure  you  have 
deserved ;  "  wonder,  0  heavens,  and  be  astonished,  0  earth !  "  that 
God  has  said  concerning  you  —  "  Deliver  him  from  going  down  to  the 
pit ;  I  have  found  a  ransom."  Yes,  "  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he 
gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him,  should 
not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life."  That  Son,  of  whom  it  is  reveal- 
ed, that  "  he  was  in  the  beginning  with  God,  and  Avas  God,"  came  into 
the  world,  proclaining —  "  I  am  come  that  they  might  have  life,  and 
that  they  might  have  it  more  abundantly."  "  The  Son  of  man  came 
not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but  to  minister  ;  and  to  give  his  life  a  ran- 
som for  many."  The  bread  that  I  will  give  is  my  flesh,  which  I  will 
give  for  the  life  of  the  world.  This  is  my  blood  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, which  is  shed  for  many,  for  the'  remission  of  sins."  Well  did 
the  apostle  say  —  "  Ye  were  not  redeemed  with  corruptible  things,  as 
silver  and  gold,  but  with  the  precious  blood  of  Christ,  as  of  a  lamb 
without  blemish  and  without  spot." 

Behold,  then,  my  brethren,  with  the  eye  of  faith,  your  merciful  and 
Almighty  Savior  !  See  him  dying  for  human  guilt ;  and  rising  again 
for  the  justification  of  human  hope.  "  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the 
life  ;  he  that  believeth  in  me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live ; 
and  whosoever  liveth  and  beheveth  in  me,  shall  never  die."  Such  is 
the  gracious,  yet  simple  declaration  of  Jesus,  the  Savior  of  sinners. 
To  you  is  this  word  of  salvation  sent.  Receive  it  with  that  self-appro- 
priation, earnestness,  and  gratitude,  which  so  well  become  guilty  and 
perishing  sinners  ;  and  ever  remember,  that  "  if  any  man  be  in  Christ, 
he  is  a  new  creature  ;  "  —  that  "  faith  overcometh  the  world,  purifieth 
the  heart,  and  worketh  by  love." 


/ 


^'y. 


